Science Has Spoken: Goldfish Can Drive Tanks
They can navigate simple routes, too.
Two fish in a tank and one of them says to the other; “How do you drive this thing?” – old joke, origin unknown
But now, it seems fish really are driving their tanks, thanks to researchers at Ben-Gurion University.
Driving animals
It’s not the first time humans have trained cognitively low-level animals to drive. In the 1940s, during the height of WW2, pigeons were trained to fly guided missiles. That research was only abandoned in 1953 when electronic navigation systems proved themselves.
Both pigeons and now goldfish, and also rats and dogs, have been taught to drive using a process called operant conditioning. It’s the same way you train a dog to sit down or unethically train an elephant to dance. Or, it seems, train your pigeons to fly missiles and goldfish to drive tanks.
Operant conditioning: “Behaviour controlled by its consequences.” – BF Skinner
You say sit, your dog sits, and you give him a sausage. So next time, he’ll sit, hoping for or expecting another sausage. The consequences control the behaviour.
So how do you get goldfish to drive in this way? Especially as they don’t like sausages.
