Artwork of Larry Vienneau Jr: February 2020

Joshua Klein is a techie, self-described hacker and general science enthusiast. He is most widely known for his project designed to train crows to fetch lost change but has also used this experience to write three books, a science fiction novel a cyberpunk novel called Roo'd and a business book Hacking Work 2010, and 2015 You Are the Product: How to Survive-and Thrive-in the Era of Reputation Economics. In his TED Talk "A Thought Experiment on the Intelligence of Crows" Joshua was interested in the untapped potential of one of the planet's most intelligent creatures, the crow!! In 2008 he devised an experiment to learn about Crow and Raven intelligence. Researchers built a vending machine where crows could deposit coins in exchange for peanuts. The crows were trained over months of patient persistence. the crows mastered the technique. Eventually, some of the trained crows escaped. the trained crows soon began teaching other crows how to receive peanuts in exchange for coins. The crows learned well.

Joshua Klein's Crow Box

Crows Hoarding Coins
Ravens and crows love shiny things. I once found a crow roost and under it were spoons, aluminum foil, a couple of ear rings and many coins. They are attracted to shiny things.
In 2011 the owner of a company that manufactures and installs car wash systems installed one of these systems in Maryland. The buyer complained he was losing significant amounts of money each day. He even accused his company of ripping him off. The owner of the car-wash also complained that his candy vending machine was also being ransacked of its peanuts.
A video camera was installed to see who exactly is stealing all the coins. He was shocked to see several black birds climbing into the machines and carrying away coins. After following the birds, he discovered quarters on the top of a car wash and more in a tree, an estimated amount of $4,000. Dozens of peanut wrappers were also discovered.
The crows learned very well

Watch the video- http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html?source=email#.T3PL3ZMoOVM.email

http://thecrowbox.com/

The Smoking Crows

Smoke symbolizes the transition of matter into spirit. Crow brought fire to humans, and he taught them to use Tobacco with fire. With the fire, it became medicine that transported spirits. Smoke represents the release of the spirit, from its visible and physical form into the invisible and spiritual. Crow taught Man to use tobacco to heal wounds of war and anger. It was once a powerful tool for healing the human spirit. People had four uses for tobacco: for prayers, for offerings or ceremonies, as medicine and as gifts to visitors.

Over time the humans forgot all about the meaning of tobacco and fire. They became slothful dirty creatures throwing tobacco carelessly about the land and sea. Crow had tried to clean up messes humans made but is was futile, no matter how much time they spent cleaning up, Man always made a bigger mess. Crow stopped trying but lingered hoping that Humans would change.
Clever Crow. He waited for Humans to become as smart as he was. The Slothful Humans came up with a “trick” to get Crow to clean up after them again. Crow let Humans think he was “trainable”.
Crow was now getting fat cleaning up after the Lazy Humans.

Dutch Crow Cigarettes Box

In 2017 A Dutch company “Crowded City” inspired by Joshua Klein's experiments developed a device to entice Crows to collect cigarette butts in exchange for a treat. Like the original experiment, this experiment relied upon crows' ability to transfer learned experience to other crows, essentially the crow trained other crows to exchange cigarettes for food.
I actually discovered both of these stories independently. I had seen similar behavior myself and was intrigued about the connection, Joshua Klein. I sent Joshua one of my Hoarders prints and I received a very sincere email from him, thanking me. He is a very humble man, his research has highlighted the fact that we are not the only intelligent creatures on our planet.

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