Peter Thiel's big bet on solar-powered cow collars (techcrunch.com)

I'm someone that has actually worked with cows.

Fences work, really really well. And cows are quite easy animals to herd. They have a natural tendency to just follow along with the group. You can literally move hundreds of head of cattle with about 4 people (I've done it).

There is some value in collecting biometrics and location information. But the entire "move the cow with a vibrator" thing isn't an innovation I think any rancher really wants or needs.

I just have a hard time seeing this as being something that actually solves a need. The "20% savings" seems really fishy. The majority of the labor for a herd is feeding them.

Ok I totally misread the title as "... cow dollars" and thought this was going to be some commodity trading blockchain with a proof-of-livestock scheme. That might actually be able to work using these collars. It would be really cool if the farms of the future were doing something like automated silviculture using robotic judas goats and electronically-controlled gates to herd the animals from one area to another. A roomba-type robot could follow along and collect fecal samples to monitor for parasites and diseases.

They're using euphemisms, the "virtual fence" is just shock collars.

Oh, IOT shock collars. Hope this company takes security more seriously than most IOT players, or some sick people are going to take hacking into these devices as an opportunity for animal cruelty. :(

This is a brilliant idea actually. However if I am right, they are probably building this as a subscription service. Wonder how expensive it will be

Collars for monitoring and herding. As long as they don’t require The Cloud, they’ll be quite helpful.

Maybe I am slightly paranoid or reading too much dystopian fiction, but the collar thing does not seem to really be about cows, if Thiel is involved. More like a portable prison, fully decentralised and highly technological.

Pretty soon they will release something similar to track humans en mass. They could strap it on your wrist instead of you neck, perhaps call it a “Smart Watch” (because big brother is watching you).

So, where can I buy a handful for personal use?

People, we’re the cattle

When currency generation and societal control is moved from the cloud into space, there needs to be a way to herd folks digitally…

Wild to watch dystopia playing out in real time

Why not use use the cow's body heat?

there is mild irony founder is wearing a Casio F-91W while installing solar powered smart collar on cow

Thiel's involvement only makes think that this'll turn out to be yet another attempt at evil.

Call me paranoid, but a tech bro backing a shock collar company? In today’s political climate?

[dead]

Testing for humans when he’s enslaved all us normies.