r/HolUp 26d ago

Happier cows Shitpost - Removed

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u/StarsDreamsAndMore 26d ago

Nah. Empathy was not involved. This was a result of researched dedicated towards min-maxing profits. All business.

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u/Wrecked--Em 26d ago

yeah if it was about empathy they'd be trying to give them a good environment in the real world instead of developing VR for cows...

this shit is more dystopian than the Matrix because the machines were at least doing the rational thing

humans can't stop irrationally draining our only planet of life

this cow VR is only rational in the narrow view of only maximizing profits, but it comes at the obvious expense of the externalities wasting resources on cow VR instead of making a real pasture ecosystem that can make happy cows, capture carbon, and regenerate topsoil (research the rate of topsoil erosion in the world, it's scary and seriously underreported)

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u/cactusmittens 26d ago

Disagree. There's no way this is cost effective and it's basically just theater that anthropomorphizes what a human thinks would make a cow happy.

Cows don't know what VR is, and having visual input that is at odds with the rest of their sensory input is more likely to be stressful that calming.

They're prey animals. If they hear a noise coming up on them or feel an unexpected touch they're going to want to look at it or may get freaked out if they can't identify the source.

They risk injury if they walk on uneven ground or past obstacles without awareness.

They can't eat or smell the "pretty" grass which is really what motivates cows to seek it; they're not after pastoral views.

Basically this whole idea is foolishness and sounds more like it was designed to be appreciated by cattle welfare sympathizers, not something that a cow actually benefits from.

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u/Wrecked--Em 25d ago

I'm not sure how that really disagrees with what I said.

I said the cow VR was dystopian and unsustainable. I didn't claim anything about whether it's actually practical or not.

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u/practicalradical510 3d ago

I agree with both. The farmers are trying to be efficient at maximizing profits, and failing because humans simply aren't smart enough, in many situations. Example: dairy farmers don't fully understand their cows' basic needs/fears/milk production.

To make matters worse, "environmentally-friendly" marketing is now profitable, regardless of a business' actual practices or intent. One could insert any group there: LGBTQ-friendly, women-friendly, African American-friendly, and the principle holds. This is why capitalism/business will never solve our most important social and environmental challenges. And why the U.S. government must remove $$ from politics-- it produces greedy, inefficient solutions.

On the bright side, those cows look pretty cool though, am I right?

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u/Obscure_Occultist 26d ago

In one hand, your right. On the other hand, its russia. It's already a bad environment to begin with.

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u/hackerbenny 26d ago

You basically can't run a business like that in modern capitalism.

Your jug of milk will cost three times as much.

There is no milk like that on the shelfs in my country, not even the "ecological" stuff is even close to sustainable.

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u/potatopotato236 26d ago edited 26d ago

Maybe milk should cost what it costs to actually produce, no? There's no real need to subsidize milk through taxes and animal suffering. Maybe then we'd also start respecting our food and those that produce it. Probably won't happen though.

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u/TheLucidCrow 26d ago

You'd have to raise wages so people could afford it, which our capitalist masters would never allow.

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u/Karmasita 26d ago

Or ya know, humans stop drinking cow's milk. Don't get me wrong I love me a glass of whole milk, but it's not really necessary for human survival.

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u/Dantecaine 25d ago

Yeah and you could stop using iPhones and wearing shoes made from slave labor.

...but you won't.

You could actually make a difference for ACTUAL human BEANS but you're stuck on bitching about milk.

This is such a hypocritical take when you're holier than thou attitude is "posted from my iphone" when factory workers are killing themselves just so you can get your data scanned "for cp"

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u/Karmasita 25d ago

You know how I can tell you're full of shit? I don't own an iPhone. Keep talking out of your ass I was just mentioning one type of solution to the fact that people have to put vr headsets on cows.

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u/Dantecaine 21d ago

No but I bet you have a samsung who is just as bad and you wear name brand shoes that weren't manufactured in america aka slave labor.

You know how I know you're full of shit and you don't actually care? Slacktavist?

You could make a smaller change than stopping drinking milk and actually help PEOPLE but you're talking about some fucking cows.

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u/TheLucidCrow 26d ago

What's your point? I could probably survive off cricket paste and lemon water. Should I be forced to live at the level of mere survival?

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u/Karmasita 26d ago

LMAO YOU know that's not what I meant, don't be a jackass. My point is that we can phase out cow's milk and then we don't have to fuck the environment over, make it more expensive, OR put VR on cows. It's a Win win win situation. Phasing out cows milk is not the equivalent of living off absolute basic necessities to the point of starvation. Get a grip.

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u/TheLucidCrow 26d ago

You could say the same about literally any luxury, which is why I don't get your point. Should I refrain from all luxuries because they hurt the environment? Or should we create a society where we produce luxury goods in an environmentally sustainable way? I'll take the latter.

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u/Karmasita 26d ago

Did you imply that milk was a luxury?!? No you didn't. You implied it was a necessity/staple by bitching about having to survive on bare minimum. That being said there are other ways to drink "milk" and it not being from a cow.

You don't want to get it because you want to argue.

Cow's milk is NOT a necessity nor a luxury. It's just something humans have done for millenia, but now humans have evolved to think more and to be more aware and self conscious. We don't NEED Cow's milk, but it's also not a luxury. Jesus christ you just want to suck on cow titties?

I agree, I'd rather we have what we can in an environmentally sustainable way, but how exactly is cows milk sustainable in anyway without creating a matrix like distopia like this article is implying???? Cow grazing is not sustainable.

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u/ArmchairCrocodile 26d ago

Waaaaa I’m such a huge fucking baby I literally cannot comprehend the fact that milk is not essential to human life. To me, if I can’t have milk, I’d rather just drink my own piss and eat my own shit than say, drink oat milk, which is vastly more sustainable.

You

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u/Dantecaine 25d ago

"posted from my iphone while I wear slave labor shoes on my slave labor high horse."

Hypocrites.

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u/TheLucidCrow 26d ago

Incel in the making right here.

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u/Dimitri-the-Turtle 25d ago

Just switch to FightMilk. It's high in crowtein.

Sound like it would be right up your alley.

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u/potatopotato236 25d ago

We could still afford it at 3-4x the price. Wine costs at least 5x as much as milk and many people still buy it. We just wouldn't drink milk like water. We'd instead treat it more like something that takes considerable effort to acquire.

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u/Karmasita 26d ago

How are people in Russia going to create a nice, clear, blue, sky and luscious green grass? I mean I agree with what you say, but this is done to cows is Russia. AFAIK, Russia isn't known for beautiful, blue, clear skied, green pastures.

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u/Hussor 26d ago

AFAIK, Russia isn't known for beautiful, blue, clear skied, green pastures

Plenty of Southern Russia is like this. Near the borders with Ukraine, the caucasus, and Kazakhstan.

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u/Karmasita 26d ago

Ok what about the people in the north?

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u/MyPFPIsFurryPorn 14d ago

This photoshop job is totally dystopian lmao

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u/spherical_cow314 26d ago

This is a crazy experimental idea, but definitely not dystopian... You can't have nice bright green pastures everywhere, it's pretty innovative to use VR on cows for that. But I agree with you on the overgrazing problem

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u/JesseJump108 26d ago

you could have green pastures if the world wasn’t set on maximizing profits

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u/ColossalCretin 26d ago

This is a fake story based on a joke or a purposeful hoax. Cows don't even have front-facing eyes. There is no way for this thing to do what they claim it does, ergo it's bullshit.

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u/Diamondanda 26d ago

How can you emphasize with a cow?

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u/StarsDreamsAndMore 26d ago

Empathize. And I mean you can empathize with anything

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u/Coalesceinthedark 26d ago

More like PR I bet, I can't imagine this being cost effective or practical even if it does work, if they are regularly/still doing this I'd be positively shocked.