#Gustatory Tech

[embracethepixels]

Tasting Pixels: A Brief View on Taste XR

In science fiction, it’s easy to sell someone the concept of a digital world far from our everyday reality. A world where anything is possible, with the only limitations being what the technology can provide. But there are aspects of it that make one question, ponder, and overthink. Take the scene in The Matrix of Smith and Cypher eating at a restaurant. Cypher makes a deal with the virtual devil…

[ixnai]

The gustatory system, a marvel of biological evolution, is a testament to the intricate balance between speed and precision. In stark contrast, the tech industry’s mantra of “move fast and break things” has proven to be a perilous approach, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence. This philosophy, borrowed from the early days of Silicon Valley, is ill-suited for AI, where the stakes are exponentially higher.

AI systems, much like the gustatory receptors, require a meticulous calibration to function optimally. The gustatory system processes complex chemical signals with remarkable accuracy, ensuring that organisms can discern between nourishment and poison. Similarly, AI must be developed with a focus on precision and reliability, as its applications permeate critical sectors such as healthcare, finance, and autonomous vehicles.

The reckless pace of development, akin to a poorly trained neural network, can lead to catastrophic failures. Consider the gustatory system’s reliance on a finely tuned balance of taste receptors. An imbalance could result in a misinterpretation of flavors, leading to detrimental consequences. In AI, a similar imbalance can manifest as biased algorithms or erroneous decision-making processes, with far-reaching implications.

To avoid these pitfalls, AI development must adopt a paradigm shift towards robustness and ethical considerations. This involves implementing rigorous testing protocols, akin to the biological processes that ensure the fidelity of taste perception. Just as the gustatory system employs feedback mechanisms to refine its accuracy, AI systems must incorporate continuous learning and validation to adapt to new data without compromising integrity.

Furthermore, interdisciplinary collaboration is paramount. The gustatory system’s efficiency is a product of evolutionary synergy between biology and chemistry. In AI, a collaborative approach involving ethicists, domain experts, and technologists can foster a holistic development environment. This ensures that AI systems are not only technically sound but also socially responsible.

In conclusion, the “move fast and break things” ethos is a relic of a bygone era, unsuitable for the nuanced and high-stakes world of AI. By drawing inspiration from the gustatory system’s balance of speed and precision, we can chart a course for AI development that prioritizes safety, accuracy, and ethical integrity. The future of AI hinges on our ability to learn from nature’s time-tested systems, ensuring that we build technologies that enhance, rather than endanger, our world.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Top ten weirdest houses biology wise and why?

I recon House Lolita must be white high simply by virtue of being TARDIS and being able to reproduce the biological way.

What are the top ten Houses for weird biology?

The Houses of Gallifrey are notoriously secretive about what they get up to, so this is a bit difficult to answer, but certainly not impossible if you'll allow a bit of theory. You may have a different order, but here's GIL's 10 to 1 of the potentially most biologically curious Houses of Gallifrey:

10: The Sommeliers - 🍷House Heartshaven

Heartshaven was renowned for its exquisite vineyards and the coveted Hartshaven Wine, which it kept in a heavily reinforced wine cellar to protect it from earthquakes.

Significant biology: Because it's easy to fine-tune your loom to produce crazies, here's the nice one. House Heartshaven's affinity for wine could suggest they chose superior olfactory and gustatory receptors, enhancing their ability to discern wine's intricate flavours and aromas. Their expertise could include an internal mechanism like a spectrometer, analysing wine's chemical makeup, terroir influences, and fermentation. They might possess a unique temporal sensitivity to wine ageing, intuitively understanding and potentially influencing the wine's maturation process for the tastiest sip.

9: The Fashionistas - 👠 House Tracolix

Known for its ambition and adaptability, House Tracolix members are like that preppy kid at school who always had the latest trainers or tech. They love to follow fashion trends to exploit societal changes, making their members more adaptable than those from other Houses, but they are also noted to be arrogant and reckless.

Significant biology: Their adaptability and trend-following nature could rooted in a unique regenerative ability, allowing physical adjustments even after the post-regeneration moulding period. Their biology might be epigenetically responsive to cultural shifts, with heightened empathic abilities enhancing trend awareness. A sophisticated pheromonal communication system could trigger this adaptation, with aesthetics automatically responding to social surroundings.

8: The Unfortunates - 🏚️ House Catherion

Once a ruling house, House Catherion met a bloody end when a rogue babel massacred its cousins. The event stopped further generations from being loomed, marking the house's decline into extinction.

Significant biology: Even though it was more experimental, House Catherion's tragic end hints at a genetic foundation in the loom prone to instability and malleability. This inherent flexibility might have allowed for diverse genetic expressions but also led to volatile outcomes like the babel, so their advanced genetic practices, while ambitious, seemed predisposed to anomalies, ranging from potentially advantageous mutations to catastrophic failures.

7: The Angry People -🪞 House Mirraflex

Originating from the valorous General Mirraflex, this House stands as a testament to military might and strategic acumen. Known for birthing generals, enforcers, and strategists, Mirraflex members wear their supercilious entitlement like armour, viewing lesser species with disdain. Their aggressive defence of the Laws of Time is legendary.

Significant biology: House Mirraflex likely exhibits unique biological enhancements suited for combat and strategy. Enhanced adrenal systems could provide rapid responses in battle, while an advanced prefrontal cortex might underpin their strategic acumen, enabling complex decision-making. Emotional regulation mechanisms may suppress empathy, favoring pragmatic decisions crucial in military contexts. Elevated levels of aggression-associated hormones may enhance physical capabilities and assertiveness, and increased pain tolerance would allow members to endure and continue fighting despite injuries.

6: The Wolf Pack - 🐺 House Dvora

The first of the Newblood houses and by far the most successful. Its cousins are very self-assured, extremely practical and like to remain impersonal. It has a strict power structure that works on the premise of a pack with a pack leader. Arooo.

Significant biology: House Dvora's pack mentality suggests advanced social cognition, possibly through a specialised brain area for understanding hierarchies, and pheromonal communication for silent social signalling. Their cohesion hints at a developed empathy centre, aiding in group dynamics. Practicality may stem from enhanced problem-solving areas in the brain, with stress response adaptations enabling logical decision-making under pressure. Heightened non-verbal skills further facilitate their strict hierarchy, ensuring efficient internal communication and adherence to the House's power structure.

5: The Old Men - 📚 House Lineacrux

Famed for its scholarly pursuits, Lineacrux is a bastion of Gallifreyan history and law, obsessed with stability and non-invention and filled with fuddy-duddys walking around pondering. Their loom makes the cousins have the appearance of extremely old and senile people; however, its members wield considerable influence, often serving as advisors within Gallifreyan society. They’ve been known to shy away from the limelight, not taking credit for their input.

Significant biology: The aged and decrepit appearance members could serve as an intentional societal camouflage, a biological adaptation allowing them to blend into the background of Gallifreyan society. By appearing old and frail, members of House Lineacrux might be more easily dismissed or overlooked, to their advantage. They could subtly guide discussions and decisions without being seen as the driving force. The decrepit appearance might lead others to underestimate their vitality and longevity, potentially giving Lineacrux members an advantage in long-term planning and strategy.

4: The ShadyMaybe Vampires - 🩸House Deeptree/Redlooms

Deeptree/Redloom/whatever we’re calling it these days is characterised by its servitor-class status, producing military. Known for its loyal yet maverick cousins, the house has a history of quelling Time Lord traitors and sharing tales of vampires with its children.

Significant biology: Could this House’s obsession with vampires indicate a deeper historical and biological tie that’s beyond just ‘good victories’? Advanced healing capabilities could enable rapid recovery from combat wounds, while an enhanced circulatory system might offer exceptional endurance. A mild aversion to bright lights could lead to specialised nocturnal combat tactics. A telepathic bond, inspired by vampire bloodfasting, could facilitate silent, instant battlefield coordination. Heightened senses, including superior night vision and acute hearing, would aid in reconnaissance. Cultural and tactical practices may be shaped by traditional vampire weaknesses, like discomfort around running water. Unique dietary needs might support their advanced physiology, requiring a specialised intake to maintain their regenerative and enhanced functions. But this could all be rumour, of course.

3: The Timeship - 🛸 House Lolita

Founded by the 101-form timeship Lolita during the early years of the Time War, initially consisting only of Lolita and reserved for her timeship children.

Significant biology: House Lolita represents a unique fusion of biotechnology, with Lolita's ability to reproduce suggesting a blend of organic and mechanical systems. This reproductive capacity might involve regenerative biology, enabling Lolita to create offspring by reconstituting parts of herself, and/or in a more human way. Offspring inherit advanced sentient interfaces, with enhanced autonomy and a deeper intrinsic understanding of the time vortex. The concept of temporal genetics in Lolita's lineage implies that her descendants possess innate temporal abilities, navigating and responding to temporal phenomena naturally. This biotechnological marvel introduces the possibility of emotional intelligence in timeships, allowing for emotional responsiveness – sometimes, a bit TOO much.

2: The Hybrids - 🧪 House Meddhoran

Meddhoran's members were known for their unique biodata, interwoven with traits from lesser races  - an experiment by their parent House, Xianthellipse. This genetic gamble was considered to be a failure.

Significant biology: House Meddhoran showcases a diverse spectrum of hybrid abilities. This genetic blending with other species may result in changes in resilience, regenerative capabilities, and range of sensory perceptions, such as extra electromagnetic detection or advanced olfactory senses, or conversely, reduced senses. Their immune systems might be exceptionally robust, offering resistance against numerous pathogens, or quite weak compared to normal Gallifreyans. Some members could possess unconventional metabolic abilities, like photosynthesis, influenced by the unique traits of incorporated species.

1: The Biofundementalists - 🔬 House Arpexia

The bastion of scientific fundamentalism on Gallifrey, Arpexia is renowned for its unwavering dedication to logic, and doesn’t like emotions. This House's innovative spirit has birthed countless experimental time travel capsules, intricate technologies and a bottomless armoury, though sometimes at the cost of stability.

Significant biology: House Arpexia's members exhibit unique physiological adaptations suited to their scientific pursuits, including enhanced night vision from a tapeta lucida, increased magnetoception for spatial orientation, and a neurochemical balance that favours rationality over emotions. Their neurological architecture likely supports advanced problem-solving and data analysis, while their immune systems may be uniquely equipped to handle the risks associated with their experimental work. They are also prone to hallucinatory hysterics, suggesting an intricate interplay between their cognitive and sensory processes, with errors in processing potentially leading to vivid, and sometimes predictive, hallucinations.

Alternative number one

The House below isn't recognised by Gallifrey, but it's probably the MOST biologically interesting.

1: We don't talk about the - 👤 House of Shadows

Rumours swirl around Gallifrey of clandestine House/s of Shadows, a place for those scarred by regeneration gone awry – incomplete transformations, insides turned out, minds unaltered by new forms, or even regressed to child-like states. Within its rumoured walls, the Black Nurseries might house the paradoxical youth, trapped in perpetual childhood or monstrous forms. Despite modern Gallifreyan advancements (apparently) rendering such anomalies near extinct, whispers persist of the House's past, and possibly concealed, existence.

Significant biology: House/s of Shadows imprisons those with regenerative aberrations, ranging from incomplete transformations to paradoxical existences. These anomalies might grant unique abilities or altered perceptions, possibly leading to heightened psychic powers or unconventional temporal interactions. Members could have evolved defensive mechanisms, both physical and psychic, to protect against the vulnerabilities introduced by their flawed regenerations. The diversity in physical forms and internal biology among the House's members might reflect unique regenerative outcomes, possibly unlocking ancient or dormant genetic traits. Additionally, the regenerative traumas might imprint psychic scars, potentially manifesting as telepathic abilities or precognitive visions. Some may even experience dimensional dissonance, resulting in abilities like intangibility, albeit in an unpredictable fashion.

Honourable mentions

None of these Houses/groups are recognised by Gallifrey, thus don't make the list, but are still extremely interesting.

The Oh My Gods - 😈 House Celestis - transcended physical form to become entities sustained by collective belief, embodying a memetic form of existence.

The Troublemakers - ⌛ Faction Paradox - evolved from House Paradox into a cult defying Time Lord conventions, utilising paradoxes and rituals to navigate and manipulate temporal realms.

The Time Deniers - 🕰️ Nechronmancers - defy Time Lord norms by rejecting the concept of time. Their advanced temporal manipulation skills suggest neurological adaptations and extremely enhanced time lobes.

Related:

💬|🏡👪What does a traditional family/House dynamic look like?: Houses and their internal structures.

🤔|🏡🧩How do Gallifreyan Houses influence abilities and traits?

🤔|🏡🩸What's the difference between an Oldblood and a Newblood Gallifreyan?

I have already spent far too long on this question, so I'll sign off. Hope that helped! 😃

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired😴

[miachel-brown]

Hey there, fellow flavor explorers 🍜✈️ Let's dive into a world where noodles become art and scanners become our magical wands – all thanks to a little something I call "culinary scanning wizardry"! 🧙‍♂️📸

Picture this: I found myself in Xi'an, surrounded by the savory symphony of sizzling noodles and aromatic spices. It's like a food lover's dream come true, right? But here's the catch – I wasn't just there to feast, I was on a quest to capture the very essence of these delightful dishes. How, you ask? Well, imagine a device that can freeze time and turn noodles into digital marvels – that's where the magic of my trusty scanner steps in! 🍽️💫

Now, let's talk about Xi'an's noodle superstar – the legendary "Oil Splash Noodles." With my scanner in hand, I transformed into a culinary detective, capturing every twirl and swirl of those hand-pulled wonders. And those splashes of flavor? Oh yes, they were saved for eternity, in all their 3D glory! 🎬🍜

But wait, there's more to this enchanting story. You see, this scanner isn't just about capturing food – it's about capturing memories. With a dash of tech sorcery, I transformed my gustatory escapade into digital treasures. Now, whenever I want to relive that noodle-induced nirvana, I simply summon my scanner and voilà – instant sensory teleportation! 🚀🤳

And the adventure doesn't stop at noodles! With this magical gadget in hand, I'm on a mission to scan and preserve delectable delights from all corners of the globe. It's like building a gallery of global flavors, right at my fingertips! 🌎🍕

So, brace yourselves, my fellow food aficionados, for a tantalizing journey through space, time, and noodles – all courtesy of my culinary scanner and a sprinkle of whimsical wonder! 🌮🛸

[the-rodent-gentleman]

Since Photoshop is no longer a viable financial option (thanks subscriptions), I decided to switch over to Clip Studio Paint since it has a similar set up. In short, I’ve basically had to learn how to digital art all over again.

Fortunately, I am in no shortage of OCs to practice on. Like this handsome lad here. Wally’s an old NITW OC for a story I never got around to writing, but he was essentially gonna be poly with Angus and Gregg. I should do a picture of the three of them together once I get skilled enough with CSP.

As for Wally’s character info, read on below.

Full Name: Wallace Robles

Voice: Keith Ferguson

Age: 20

Species: Small-Clawed Otter

Gender: Cis Male

Face Claim: Dev Patel

Orientation: Asexual (sex-favorable), panromantic

Occupation:

DJ (DJ Wave) on weekend nights

Postal worker on weekdays

A high school music teacher when he’s older

Biography:

Born and raised in Flint, Michigan 

Third-generation Indian

A late baby

Lost his parents to a car crash

Nearly died when running away after an argument between his uncle and sister, only to be saved by what he still believes to be an alien

Lives with his much older sister who is a tech support specialist

Was an avid Bionicle fan and collector as a kid

Has a seriously weird and disgusting food palette (potato chips in his banana split for instance)

Enjoys wearing socks with sandals

Used to babysit a lot

Has been through a lot of jobs and met a ton of different people as a result

Seems to be dead asleep half the time

Experiences synesthesia: sound to color (chromesthesia) / sound to taste (auditory-gustatory )

Nails on chalkboard – Blinding white/bitter Bubble wrap popping – Cerise/spicy Hard rap beats – Dark gray/bland Saxophone sounds – Pink/lemony Flute sounds – Light green/tangy Soft acoustic guitar sounds – Periwinkle/smokey Drum sounds - Dark Red/salty Hands clapping – Lavender/zesty Sad violin sounds – Light pink/chocolatey Gregg’s Voice – Yellow/citrusy Angus’s Voice – Green/minty Koharu’s (OC) Voice – Orange/sweet Claire’s (OC) Voice – Violet/creamy Mae’s Voice – Red/tart Bea’s Voice – Blue/icy His own voice – Cyan/sour Running water – Beige/fluffy Crickets chirping – Black/buttery Car horns blaring – Burnt sienna/burnt High-pitched singing in Spanish – Magenta/fizzy Soft piano sounds – Peach/vanilla Wind howling – Teal/fishy Trombone sounds – Umber/oniony Birds singing – Dark purple/garlicky Whistling – Steel blue/savory Rain falling – Plum/cinnamon Crackling fire – Lime/cheesy

Has nicknames for almost everyone

Claire: Clarity Koko: Koko Bean Angus: Angles/Wonder Gregg: Gregarious/Bowie Bea: Queen Bea Mae: Mayflower Jackie: Jackhammer Lori: Lorica Germ: Germicide

Agrees to be an ‘auxiliary boyfriend’ for Gregg and Angus from time to time since he has no desire to be in a relationship due to his past romantic failings (for now) and Gregg and Angus’ lack of desire to be polyamorous (for now)

Eventually enters a relationship with Gregg and Angus, complete with everyone giving each other affectionate nicknames

Angus: Bug, Moon Gregg: Cap’n, Navi Wally: Wonder, Bowie

Interests/Hobbies:

Music

Space

Sci-fi enthusiast

Swimming

Conspiracy theorist (in secret)

Pirates

Skills:

Can sleep practically everywhere

Fluent in Hindi, English, and Spanish

Talented at sneaking up on people

Likes:

Blue Gummy Sharks

Music, especially EDM

Stargazing

Anything sci-fi

Dislikes

Bugs/spiders

Being told not to cry

Personality:

Affable

Flirtatious

Dramatic

Cocky

Insecure

Easygoing

Childish

Empathetic

Dreamy

Inspirations:

Nick Wilde (Zootopia)

Sans (Undertale)

Dodger (Oliver and Company)

Louis Stevens (Even Stevens)

Lance (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Ron Stoppable (Kim Possible)

Peter Quill (Marvel)

Jack Frost (ROTG)

Amethyst (Steven Universe)

Theme: “Blue Ocean Floor” by Justin Timberlake

                           ————————————————

For better quality views:  DeviantArt | FurAffinity | Weasyl

[jacksondreynolds]

The internet of things is amazing. Yesterday, I made a broccoli-potato soup for dinner. When it came time to transfer the ingredients from the stock pot to the blender, however, I had no idea how long nor at which speed setting I should blend the ingredients to achieve the desired consistency, as the recipe which I was following unhelpfully said only to “blend, blend, blend until creamy.” So, I opened the Perfect Blend app on my iPhone which automatically wirelessly connected to the Vitamix, allowing me to select the “Hot Soup” preset within the app and then press a button on the blender to run that program. The blender then ran at varying speeds for around six minutes (far longer than I would have intuitively thought necessary), with the current speed setting and time remaining tracking along with a dynamic graphic on the iPhone app all the while. When the program ended and the blender stopped, the soup had begun steaming from the heat generated. The creamy consistency of the finished product was almost too good to believe, much to the gustatory delight of my wife. The “future” of tech is already here and it continues to evolve at an awe-inspiringly breakneck pace. I grew up without internet access until I was eight years old. Now, at age 26, I’m using my phone to control my blender to make soup. I can only imagine what things will be like in another few decades when this post itself will seem amusingly quaint in the retrospective lights of that age. (at Riverside Village at Hammond's Ferry) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK6ghjoJ2UX/?igshid=mwjm04w7tf30

[nightmare-afton-cosplay]

Foodie Filmmaker David Gelb Orders Up a Couple of Real Estate Deals in L.A.

realtor.com, Erik Voake/Getty Images

The culinary content creator David Gelb—the man behind the critically acclaimed film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” and the popular Netflix series “Chef’s Table”—has prepped a two-course real estate deal in the Hollywood Hills. Within a single week, he purchased one home and put another on the market.

Gelb closed on a 3,471-square-foot contemporary home near Mulholland Drive in the Laurel Hills area just a week before he put his Beachwood Canyon home on the market for $2.5 million.

The status of the latter home is not clear right now. Initially listed in July, it’s currently off market. It could be that Gelb decided to hold onto the place, found a tenant, or is in the process of closing a deal.

Records indicate that Gelb paid $3.22 million for the latest home on his real estate menu. It was originally built in 1972, but has been recently renovated. The residence now boasts an open floor plan with five bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and remarkable views of the San Fernando Valley.

Director David Gelb’s new Hollywood Hills home

realtor.com

His new acquisition also features two master suites and an array of high-tech goodies, including security cameras, an electric-car charging station, and remote controls for its many automated features, including a heated pool and hot tub.

Master suite

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Great room

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Pool

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And of course, this gourmet aficionado requires a delicious chef’s kitchen, with a 48-inch, oversized stove, JennAir appliances, a herringbone marble backsplash, and a large waterfall island. The space is perfect for entertaining guests with a gustatory bent.

Kitchen

realtor.com

The multilevel home Gelb put on the market in July also has a chef’s kitchen, with double dishwashers and Wolf appliances. It also offers plenty of outdoor dining space, on decks with classic views of Los Angeles.

In addition, it’s in a location that any true food fan would enjoy—just a few minutes from chic eateries in Hollywood and Los Feliz.

David Gelb’s Beachwood Canyon home

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Beachwood Canyon kitchen

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Sideyard

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Living room

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One of the more interesting features of the terraced property is a pristine white wall on one side of the heated pool, which is used as an outdoor theater screen. There’s also a thriving secret garden with lemon trees and herbs.

Gelb isn’t the only notable name to realize the value of the home, built in 1993. America Ferrera, of “Ugly Betty” and “Superstore” fame, once lived there.

She paid $1,415,000 for the three-bedroom, four-bathroom home in 2008, and lost a little cash on it when she sold it in 2012 for $1,240,000 in 2012. Gelb purchased the 3,427-square-foot home in 2017, for $2,175,000.

Gelb, 36, catapulted to fame thanks to his work on the 2011 documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” He then went on to helm the horror film “The Lazarus Effect,” and created two Netflix food series, “Chef’s Table,” which has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award, and “Street Food.”

The post Foodie Filmmaker David Gelb Orders Up a Couple of Real Estate Deals in L.A. appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

from https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/david-gelb-orders-up-a-couple-of-real-estate-deals/

[sunken-standard]

Drabble Meme Prompt Fill Number Infinity

Since I had three sets of prompts with significant overlap, I combined them:

Requested by @mistykins06:Dear one. I'm incredibly late to the latest Drabble challenge so I shall throw 86 (You’re cute with glasses)  and 96 (I could’ve gone pro) at you to do with what you will. Love, Mistykins06 Requested by @mizjoely: If you're still taking prompts, 20, 21 & 22 would be fab (together, apart, whatever floats your boat!) - When’s the last time you smiled?/ Stop being such a brat/ If I wanted one, I would have gotten it myself Requested by @theleftpill: For the drabble meme - I have no idea what the phrases are since I don't have the original list, so I'm choosing numbers for personal reasons: 86 (You’re cute with glasses ), 20 (When’s the last time you smiled?), 22 (If I wanted one, I would have gotten it myself)

Set in The Cheese Stands Alone ‘verse.

"You’re cute with glasses"/ "I could’ve gone pro"/ "When’s the last time you smiled?"/ "Stop being such a brat"/ "If I wanted one, I would have gotten it myself"

"Stop being such a brat and just come back," Molly said, her ancient cordless phone wedged between her ear and shoulder as she refilled the salt shaker.  She always tidied her kitchen when she was using her land line, it was ridiculous.  Who still used a land line anyway? Her one remaining friend from the Tom-era and former colleague 'Meena,' apparently.  Dull.  "Three is old enough to stay home alone for a few hours while you take a shift in the lab.  Just give him a little Benylin and put him in a dog crate with a blanket over it, turn on the telly for some noise, he won't even know you're gone."

Ah yes, the future mother of my children, Sherlock thought dryly.

"Pfft, unfit.  And if I wanted one, I would have got it myself.  No, it's not baby-snatching if you leave something of equal value in the pram, like a puppy or a bag of apples."

He glanced up and she was smiling that little dimply, impish smile of hers.  She was trying to murder him; cause of death—ironically unrequited love and cuteness.

"I'm telling you, the new techs they send in just keep getting worse.  I don't know where they're getting them, but..."  A pause while Meena said something that made Molly's lips twist into a half-smile, half grimace.  "Oh, he was a dope, but at least he's not a creep.  This new one, Gaz—yeah, I know, right?—spent his entire first day staring at my tits like he was trying to make eye contact with them to assert his dominance or something."

He's not going to last long, Sherlock thought darkly.  His eyes drifted to her chest, her bra-less breasts wobbling  rather enticingly under her t-shirt.  Molly would find a way to take care of it, she always did, but if she didn't, he could arrange for 'Gaz' to accidentally fall down some stairs or something else equally violent and debilitating.  One of the many perks of associating with the criminal classes.

Molly snapped her fingers in front of her chest to get his attention, then pointed rather pointedly to her eyes while pursing her lips.  They're up here.

Shit. She'd caught him looking.  And rather than being flustered or flattered or—best-case—ready to throw the phone down and whip her t-shirt over her head to let him have a go at them, she just looked annoyed.

She laughed at something Meena said and went back to tidying the worktop.

*

"Ugh, my ear feels like it's going to fall off," she said, flopping down next to him on the sofa.  It was a Herculean effort not to watch her breasts bounce as she did it; now that she knew he looked and she wasn't happy about it, it was all he wanted to do.  Well, more than he normally did, which, to be fair, was a significant amount of time anyway.

He looked at her ear, instead, which was quite red from where it had been pressed to the phone for the last hour and change.

"Now you know why I don't like lengthy phone conversations."

"You don't like any phone conversations," she contradicted, pulling that scornful face of hers that made her look like she should be wearing a ball gown, surrounded by birds and anthropomorphic mice and talking teapots.

"Texting is easier."

"Not when I'm in the middle of a post-mortem."

"That's why you have assistants."

"I have assistants to assist with the post-mortem. Not to answer questions like, 'Could you, in theory, fit three Walnut Whips in your mouth at once?'  Though really, can't complain about that one, the next day I had seven of them on my desk because apparently Ann told everyone in the department and they all wanted to know.  So, I mean, free chocolate.  Oh, don't make that face."

"What face?  This is my normal face."  He might have been making a face; that text was actually supposed to be private, since it wasn't for a case and more a matter of personal curiosity.  He'd also been eating a Walnut Whip at the time and was having other, entirely less innocent thoughts about her eating one, too.

"Well, yes, but it's a glower.  When's the last time you smiled?"

"Yesterday, though it may have just been wind," he answered dryly.

It had the desired effect; she couldn't help herself and snorted.  Molly loved a fart joke.  Maybe he could get her to watch some Monty Python again later.  

*

"I really wish Meena would come back.  She was so good at her job—no accidents, always there on time, never ran the wrong tests on the wrong samples.  And she was so much fun!  She was the one who dared me to wear her glasses when they did the new ID badge photos.  We were talking about how no one ever checks them anyway and I could probably wear a clown nose and a rainbow wig and no one would even raise an eyebrow," Molly said, her tone wistful.  

"Mm, always wondered why you had them in that picture," he murmured distractedly, deftly applying a second coat of red varnish to her middle toenail.  Being her stand-in girlfriend wasn't all bad all the time; at least he got to be physically close to her and she talked to him. "You look cute with glasses."

Bollocks, he thought.  He hadn't meant to say that out loud.  He hoped she'd just take it as a girlfriend thing, like telling her her hair was on point or those shoes were hot or whatever it was women said to each other to be supportive.

"Oh, ah, thank you," she said.  It was almost a question.  

"You're welcome?" he answered, making it a question himself.

He finished applying the varnish in excruciating silence; he was very aware of Molly watching him as he picked her foot up off his lap to blow on her still-wet nails.  It was a heavy moment.

"You're, ah, really good at that.  Pedicures, I mean," Molly said, her voice strained.

"Had a case once for a nail salon owner.  Industrial espionage, more or less—well, less, more than more, they had their own line of varnishes and care products that were being tampered with.  Learned how to do it there.  She said I could've gone pro.  I even got to keep the tips," he babbled, realizing he'd been swiping his thumb over Molly's ankle.

"Just the tips?" Molly asked, and he really wasn't sure if she was making a sex joke or asking a genuine question; he swallowed hard against the implication of the former and the very vivid image his brain supplied him with.

"Actually got a bottle of nail varnish, too.  I used it in an experiment.  It was purple."  I carried a watermelon.

Good thing she didn't know he'd actually seen (and liked) Dirty Dancing; he could at least maintain the illusion of having a working pair of testicles. There had to be an appropriate joke in there about the colour blue as well, but he was having a hard time (ha) thinking past the smoothness of her skin.  She'd shaved just the night before.

"How is your ankle, by the way?" he asked, changing the subject to something safe.

"Much better, barely feel it now.  Bruising's almost gone," she said too quickly, grateful that the conversation was moving away from weird, at least.

"I see," he said, pushing up her trouser leg under the pretence of inspecting her ankle.

"I mean, you can still wait on me hand and foot and carry me up the stairs, if you're still feeling guilty," she joked. "Wouldn't mind a bacon butty right now.  Or a glass of wine.  Or both."

He turned to her with a look of appalled affront at her gustatory choices, then let it drop.  "Actually, do you have any bacon in? I'm a bit peckish myself."

"No, but I've still got plenty of cheese."

"Grilled cheese it is, then.  Goes better with the wine, anyway," he said, easing himself out from under her feet.

*

"Mm, God, this is gorgeous," she said, using her finger to swipe a gooey string of cheese off of her chin.  "Since when do you know how to cook things that aren't potentially explosive or otherwise hazardous?"

"I'm a man of many talents," he said before biting into his own sandwich.  Using the sliced apple in it had been a stroke of brilliance if he did say so himself.  "I know how to both boil and fry an egg, too," he added.

"With skills like that, you'll make some lucky woman very happy one day," she said lightly.  "You can certainly fill out an apron." She gave him an amused mock-leer from where she was leaned against the sink with her plate.

The apron was rather ridiculous, but he wasn't going to ruin a £300 shirt with grease splatter.

"Well, if you ever come across a woman who doesn't mind the occasional potentially explosive or otherwise hazardous dinner, enjoys solving crimes, and can provide me with human body parts for experimentation, then do give her my number," he said, skirting the edge of actually flirting by injecting just a hint of sarcasm into his tone. It was either that or drop to his knees and beg her to just give him a chance to make her happy; he'd rather not ruin the evening, though.

"I don't know, a woman like that sounds awfully dangerous.  Probably has a few bodies buried in her back garden.  Could have had an ex-boyfriend that was a criminal mastermind.  Maybe he's even buried in her back garden."  She smirked before taking a bite of her sandwich.  

He was hit with the memory of when he'd told her Moriarty was dead and she needed to do something with the body until Mycroft could arrange disposal; Shall I just bury him in my back garden, then? had been her incredulous response.  Hadn't been nearly as amusing at the time.

Wait, was she flirting?  Or was she just going along with the joke?

"I like a woman who knows her way around a shovel.  Graverobbing's always much more fun with two."

"I thought that was housebreaking."

"That too. Lots of things are better with two.  Vandalism, confidence tricks, footraces, most board games..."

"Sex," she supplied.

"Probably," he agreed.

He could almost hear the needle scratch across the vinyl before she scrutinized him.

"I mean, with one person it's not really sex as such and three or more is just too many, so two for sex.  Two is the magic number there. Two people.  Having sex," he stumbled to clarify, anything to cover the fact that he had no first-hand knowledge of the act.  

"Ohhh-kay."

And it was going so well there for a minute.

*

"Sherlock," she said, pulling her calves away from his still-cold feet.

"Hm."

"If I, ah, ever did meet a woman like you described before, or, I mean, someone I thought you might like, would you, ah, ever want me to introduce you?  Because, I—I would."

"Thank you, but no."

"Women not your area, married to your work, right."

"No, that's just what I tell John when asks annoying, invasive questions." Because it was dark and he was turned away from her and there was always something about the night-time that made confessions easier, he said it.  "To be quite honest, I'm not interested in meeting any women.  I've already met one and I can't really imagine anyone else being able to hold a candle to her."

"Oh," she said quietly, sadly.  "If you, ah, ever want to talk about it, I mean, it must be hard to keep up long distance for so long..."

Long distance?  What was she—oh.  Irene Adler, John's blog and the lie he'd told about the witness protection scheme in America.  

Really though, what he had with Molly could be considered long distance; the other side of the bed may as well be the other side of the world for all the distance between them.

"It can be trying at times, but every moment I do get with her is precious," he said sincerely.  It was probably a cruel thing to do to make her think it was someone else, but maybe, just maybe, if he could get his feelings out like this, he could tell her the truth someday.  Or else he was shooting himself in the foot.

She reached over and gave his arm a gentle squeeze.

"I'd spend every hour of every day with her if I could.  Sleep next to her every night.  Apart from the cold feet, I don't think she'd mind."

"She probably doesn't mind the cold feet as much as she pretends to," Molly said, her voice taking on that gentle, heartbreaking tone of hers when she was clamping down on her own misery to ease someone else's.  

He'd maybe made a bit of a mistake, miscalculated how deeply buried the feelings she used to have for him still were.  He didn't want to hurt her.

He wiggled backwards a bit and pressed his feet against her again; this time to the outside of her leg, one foot from her ankle to mid-calf, the other above it.

"Or maybe she does mind it, but she puts up with your bullshit because she loves you too much anyway," Molly said, poking him in the back.

His heart sped up with the thought of Molly loving him in return; what a wonderful thing that would be.

"I do sometimes wonder if she does.  She's never said it.  Not in so many words, at least."

"Have you ever said it to her?  I mean, assuming you do love her, which it sounds like you do."

"Oh, I do.  More than I ever thought possible.  Never found the right moment to actually tell her, though.  The timing's always bad."

"Mm. Yeah."  A pause.  "I'm sure you'll find the right time and the right words one day."

"One hopes," he dismissed.

They settled back down to sleep, both lost in their own thoughts.  

"Molly—"

"Hm?"

"Goodnight." He just couldn't do it.  Wanted to, but couldn't.

One day.

[jenniferisacommonname]

Stop Calling It “Screen Time”

There are few phrases in the English language that annoy me as much as “screen time.” It belongs to that special class of bigotry that is so grossly imprecise, it can’t even be classified as a proper -ism because it targets the majority. It’s a prejudice without any juris, a bias with no slant, a dogma whose rejection is so universal that it might as well be feline. To claim that every pixel is the same is to say that Shakespeare is equal to Playboy because they're both printed on paper. It's ridiculous.

The better distinction is one of content. I’d rather my children play a good video game than read a bad book, and I’d positively insist that they watch a movie instead of running around outside playing a game of, for example, “Smear the Queer.” (If you’re not familiar with this playground staple of yesteryear, be glad. If you are, then you understand my point that not all forms of exercise offer a net benefit.) Of course there are good books, and there are good ways to get physical exercise, and my family engages in both regularly. I am not arguing that “screen time” should be placed above rather than below; I’m saying it’s a meaningless category that shouldn’t exist at all.

Similarly, the rationalization that “we only let them watch things that are educational” makes me only slightly less furious. It almost always indicates a misunderstanding of what learning really is—and I say this as someone who worked for an educational software company for a while. My coworkers in that office were smart, dedicated people, who loved children and thought technology made just the neatest window dressing. They didn’t get it. And why should they? Gaming wasn’t their profession. Their flaw was not an ignorance of technology’s strengths—which they certainly had—but rather the hubris of thinking that, hey, anybody could do it.

The truth is that a kid will practice far more math skills playing an RPG with complicated stats management than he’ll ever get from a “fun math games” website that took a flash programmer 20 minutes to develop. Then there is learning outside the three Rs to take into account, like social interaction and awareness. I firmly believe that my children are better served by a co-op video game—in which they have to evaluate and rely on each other's skills, and learn both the verbal and emotional components of teamwork—than some hapless kid who isn't allowed to have her own screens, but is constantly learning through Mommy's example how to measure her self-worth in terms of likes.

It’s true that I grew up playing games, and that has surely had an influence. But a large part of my position here actually stems from a demonstration I saw during my freshman year of college. Several of the classes in the Radio-TV-Film curriculum were required of all students, regardless of whether we were budding directors, screenwriters, sound techs, or otherwise. So, by way of introduction, professors would often go around the room on the first day and ask about our focus within the major. On this particular occasion, the professor ended the exercise with an oddly smug declaration.

“Okay. You've told me why you think you're here,” he said. “Now, I'm going to tell you why you're really here.” He peered over the room expectantly. “Raise your hand if you were not allowed to watch television as a child.”

Roughly 85% of the hands in the room went up. Everyone looked around in shock, because I guess they’d all been thinking they were the only one. (Full disclosure: I was not allowed to watch TV for several years at my mother’s house. But that didn’t start until I was nine, and I spent the majority of my time at my dad’s house, where the TV was on constantly. I’m as much a victim of subconscious conditioning as anybody else; I’m just saying my own reasons for being there emerged from a different set of animal instincts.)

“That's right,” our professor crooned, an edge of triumph in his voice. “And it's too late for you. But I want you to remember this, for when you have kids. Understand that if you forbid them something that society deems generally acceptable, all you've done is plant the seed for their obsession.”

So yeah, I think that if you want your kid to become a professional game tester, then by all means, severely limit their screen time. See how that works out.

I do not, incidentally, mean that addiction should be allowed to flourish. Obsessions of any kind are bad, whether it's digital or emotional or gustatory or anything else. The overall skill we all have to master is self-regulation, and when you completely cut children off, they're not learning it. They're just twitching within your artificial chains, salivating for a chance at freedom. The phrase, “Okay, I've had enough of this, it's time for something else,” doesn't just magically come with age. It takes real practice, and a level of involvement on the parents' part. Maybe the obsessive tendencies are so bad that it has to start with just one minute at a time, and when the kid can successfully walk away from that without a fit, the parents can inch it up to two minutes—whatever it takes. But successful integration must be the long-term goal, or else you're just setting them up to binge the moment you're not around. The bigger the wall, the more gruesome the high-dive is off the top.

And I know it’s tough being a generation on the edge. Many parents have never gotten comfortable with new media, and gnash their teeth at the thought of playing their kids’ video game for ten minutes just to understand what it's really like. But you have to. You have to be involved in the content they're consuming, and avoid the temptation to cop out through format bans. Before you know it, you’ll be forming a family team on Rocket League and having the time of your life.

[thefaeriereview]

Cover Reveal: Green Curse

https://ift.tt/3gDID3M

I'm so pleased to reveal the new cover for the latest Botanic Hill Detectives Mystery book, Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse by Sherrill Joseph.

Coming this fall!

Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse

Expected Publication Date: Fall 2020

Genre: MG Mystery/ Middle Grade – 9 to 12 years old (For fans of Nancy Drew type mysteries)

In 1945, Isabela de Cordoba’s great-grandfather, the famous silent movie actor Lorenzo de Cordoba, mysteriously hid a legendary, multimillion-dollar emerald somewhere on the family’s sprawling Eucalyptus Street estate. Seventy years later, the gem remains concealed. Nicknamed the “Green Curse,” the emerald is blamed for the Southern California familia’s numerous, untimely deaths. On her twenty-first birthday, Isabela receives a secret letter with a cryptic poem. These documents from the long-deceased Lorenzo invite her to hunt for the gemstone. But first, she must decipher the poem’s eight stanzas for clues. To assist, Isabela hires her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the four Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, and their best friends, Moki Kalani and Rani Kumar. Eerie footsteps inside the mansion, unexplained occurrences in the adjacent cemetery, and the mysterious tenant in the backyard casita challenge them. But they ingeniously make progress on the poem’s meaning with startling discoveries. Sliding wall panels, a secret room, and hidden passages reveal much. The detectives aren’t the only ones looking for the emerald. The perilous race for the de Cordoba treasure is on! 

GREEN CURSE is a spooky mystery that starts during a lightning storm in a big empty mansion. The tension ratchets up continuously as the story goes, alluding to ghosts, vampires, tombstones, graves, and a scary old woman that could be a witch. There’s a mystery within the mystery, a broad range of diverse characters, and interesting lore about gemstones of antiquity. My 12-year-old son and I recommend this page-turner that we just had to finish in one day!” -–BEN GARTNER, author of The Eye of Ra series “This book was shocking, fun, and clever. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. One of the best books I have ever read!” –LIAM M., age 11, Macungie, PA

Add to Goodreads

Other Books in the Series:

Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets (A Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries #1)

Publication Date: February 1st, 2020

Genre: MG/ Middle Grade/ Mystery (Ages 9 – 12)

World-famous Egyptologist Dr. Winston Thornsley died suddenly two months ago in disgrace. His widow, Ida Thornsley, remains convinced her husband was falsely accused of stealing an ancient burial urn he discovered in Egypt last summer, but local and federal law enforcement officers are stumped. Mrs. Thornsley, desperate for answers, calls in her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, Moki Kalani, and Rani Kumar. Their exciting mission? To find the urn and its real thief, bring the criminal to justice, and exonerate Dr. Thornsley so his spotless reputation can be restored. A roomful of venomous snakes, the poisoned Egyptian pond, and Dragon Pit Man are just a few of the tests awaiting the four tech-savvy teenagers. As the detectives begin to unravel the sinister plot, the mystery takes a dangerous turn. Answers are at their fingertips—if they can only convince their parents to let them solve the case.

Goodreads

Egyptian Secrets is available for review!

Request copy here!

About the Author: Sherrill Joseph will be forever inspired by her beautiful students in the San Diego public schools where she taught for thirty-five years before retiring and becoming a published author. She has peopled and themed the Botanic Hill Detectives Mysteries with children and adult characters of various abilities, races, cultures, and interests. Sherrill strongly believes that children need to find not only themselves in books but others from different races and social situations if all are to become tolerant, anti-racist world citizens. In addition, the author created her detectives—patterned after her own fifth-grade students and twelve-year-old twin cousins—to be mature, smart, polite role models that will appeal to parents, teachers, but especially to kids who seek to realize their greatest potential with courage and self-respect. Sherrill is a lexical-gustatory synesthete and native San Diegan where she lives in a 1928 Spanish-style house in a historic neighborhood with her poodle-bichon mix, Jimmy Lambchop. Other loves include her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. She can’t leave out dark chocolate, popcorn, old movies, purple, and daisies. Having never lived in a two-story house, she is naturally fascinated by staircases. Sherrill is a member of SCBWI and the Authors Guild and promises many more adventures with the squad to come.

Sherrill Joseph | Newsletter | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Cover Reveal Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2ClQjbT

[nancygduarteus]

The AI That Knows Exactly What You Want to Eat

Flavor, the conjunction of taste and smell, is not a sensation that yields easily to analysis. Unlike sights and sounds, which can be captured by cameras and microphones, there is no widespread way to measure flavor. What people experience when they eat has heretofore been largely ineffable and uncomputable.

“If I go to a farmer’s market, I can take a picture of a really lovely mushroom, but I cannot take an exact ‘flavor image’ and show it to someone and have them understand,” says Tarini Naravane, a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Davis who studies flavors. This goes right to an age-old philosophical question. “How do I know what I call red is what you call red? This happens far more in flavor than it does in the visual world,” Naravane says. “[Flavor] is far more complicated.”

But an artificial-intelligence app called Gastrograph aims to introduce a way to reliably measure flavor. If it succeeds, that will give the company that makes it a digital handle on food. And as with everything else, once flavor is digitized, it will be that much easier to understand—and control.

[Read: Tasting a flavor that doesn’t exist]

Gastrograph works by getting people to sample foods—usually tasters hired by food and beverage companies, but anyone with a smartphone can download the app—and analyzing their input with AI to glean further insight. When people try a new food or drink, they enter their impressions into Gastrograph’s spiderweb-like interface, where each spoke represents a flavor category, from floral to woody to retro-nasal. After users pick a value for a category, they delve a step deeper, choosing specific descriptors; if a food is fruity, is it more like green apple, tangerine, or elderberry? Using data entered previously by many users, the system has developed its own representation of how each food or drink shows up in the app’s detailed flavor space, which has more than 600 dimensions.

When someone enters a new review, Gastrograph compares the report to the app’s body of data. Its AI analysis can then determine the flavors in the food even better than the person who submitted the review, according to Jason Cohen, the founder and CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems, the company behind the app. Humans are constantly experiencing flavors that we can’t identify, Cohen says: “We’ve all had that feeling: Oh, I know this flavor, what is that?”

Moreover, we don’t consciously notice many flavors we perceive, even though they can be important components in a gustatory experience. As an example, Cohen says that if you add trace amounts of vanilla to milk, people generally report that it tastes sweet, creamy, and delicious, without putting their fingers on vanilla. If someone tries lychee for the first time and reports only different flavors they’re familiar with, the app may be able to recognize that they’re really tasting lychee, says Cohen.

In each food or drink sampled, Gastrograph tries to make a comprehensive model by pinning down all its flavors, including the hidden ones. The app is “literally reading someone’s mind,” Cohen says, but then quickly corrects himself. “No, if we were reading their mind, they would’ve known they were tasting it. We’re reading their subconscious.”

AFS is selling Gastrograph as a way for food manufacturers to get a better understanding of what they’re producing and how it relates to customers. Some of the company’s first clients were brewers who wanted to make sure their beers maintain the same flavor over time. Brewing depends on agricultural products that naturally vary from year to year, which chafes against the brewer’s need for consistency.

Yards Brewing in Philadelphia, AFS’s longest-running customer, uses the tool routinely. “We just register a user and they sit down with a bartender, get out their phone, and have a tasting. By doing that repeatedly, we can calibrate them as a taster,” says Frank Winslow, Yards’s director of quality control. Since the app knows what the beer should taste like at each stage, tasters can be used to check that the product is on track. “Having those kinds of warnings early in the process is a huge step,” Winslow says.

Once Gastrograph models a food or drink, it can then try to simulate what would happen when you change that food or drink’s flavor or introduce it to new demographics. The app does this using a technique from the field of computational linguistics. Language researchers use machine learning to analyze huge piles of text and create many-dimensional models of the meanings of words. The models can also find relationships between words using operations like “king − man + woman = queen.” Gastrograph uses similar operations in its flavor space to try to predict how new demographics will like foods they haven’t tried.

[Read: The joys and disappointments of being a supertaster]

One of AFS’s new clients is Acelerada, a kind of high-tech skunkworks for Grupo Bimbo, the Mexico-based baking giant. Bimbo is in the midst of bringing Sanissimo, its most popular cracker in Mexico, to the United States. Before the launch, Acelerada ran a pilot program with Gastrograph to test how American consumers felt about the product. Bimbo plans on creating a different version of the cracker with more sea salt sprinkled on top, testing it with Gastrograph, and potentially modifying the recipe for the crackers that go on sale. Acelerada hopes to use Gastrograph in the future to help run small taste panels and make more specialized products to appeal to specific demographics. “It might be the way people do it going forward,” says Alicia Rosas, the manager of Acelerada.

While AFS’s early customers hope to use AI to maintain the flavor of their products or make incremental changes, it’s fair to wonder how far Gastrograph’s effects will go if the tech does prove so useful for predicting people’s subconscious preferences. How much do we want an app poking around in thoughts that are secret even from ourselves? The world is just starting to reckon with how social-media platforms and omnipresent screens can hijack our mental processes in destructive ways, getting us hooked as we wait for the next “like.” If AI can really tap into flavors in the subconscious, will it be used to help make foods that are addictive? Will apps stick to ingredients that are healthful and sustainable or gravitate to whatever will help beat the competitors’?

Cohen, an enthusiastic foodie, says our AI-enabled future will be more tasty than creepy. “Everything is going into targeted, niche. There’ll always be a beer you like more, and it won’t be the same as for me,” he says. “Far from being a dystopian nightmare, there will be better products for everyone.”

But AI is one of the more powerful tools humans have ever devised. Like all tools, its effects depends on its use. Cohen and AFS’s current customers seem to care about making better food and drink, not just moving more product. Here’s hoping that users of artificial intelligence keep that same thought in mind when they employ the technology to redesign what we eat.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/12/gastrograph-flavor-goes-digital/577270/?utm_source=feed

[ionecoffman]

The AI That Knows Exactly What You Want to Eat

Flavor, the conjunction of taste and smell, is not a sensation that yields easily to analysis. Unlike sights and sounds, which can be captured by cameras and microphones, there is no widespread way to measure flavor. What people experience when they eat has heretofore been largely ineffable and uncomputable.

“If I go to a farmer’s market, I can take a picture of a really lovely mushroom, but I cannot take an exact ‘flavor image’ and show it to someone and have them understand,” says Tarini Naravane, a Ph.D. student at the University of California at Davis who studies flavors. This goes right to an age-old philosophical question. “How do I know what I call red is what you call red? This happens far more in flavor than it does in the visual world,” Naravane says. “[Flavor] is far more complicated.”

But an artificial-intelligence app called Gastrograph aims to introduce a way to reliably measure flavor. If it succeeds, that will give the company that makes it a digital handle on food. And as with everything else, once flavor is digitized, it will be that much easier to understand—and control.

[Read: Tasting a flavor that doesn’t exist]

Gastrograph works by getting people to sample foods—usually tasters hired by food and beverage companies, but anyone with a smartphone can download the app—and analyzing their input with AI to glean further insight. When people try a new food or drink, they enter their impressions into Gastrograph’s spiderweb-like interface, where each spoke represents a flavor category, from floral to woody to retro-nasal. After users pick a value for a category, they delve a step deeper, choosing specific descriptors; if a food is fruity, is it more like green apple, tangerine, or elderberry? Using data entered previously by many users, the system has developed its own representation of how each food or drink shows up in the app’s detailed flavor space, which has more than 600 dimensions.

When someone enters a new review, Gastrograph compares the report to the app’s body of data. Its AI analysis can then determine the flavors in the food even better than the person who submitted the review, according to Jason Cohen, the founder and CEO of Analytical Flavor Systems, the company behind the app. Humans are constantly experiencing flavors that we can’t identify, Cohen says: “We’ve all had that feeling: Oh, I know this flavor, what is that?”

Moreover, we don’t consciously notice many flavors we perceive, even though they can be important components in a gustatory experience. As an example, Cohen says that if you add trace amounts of vanilla to milk, people generally report that it tastes sweet, creamy, and delicious, without putting their fingers on vanilla. If someone tries lychee for the first time and reports only different flavors they’re familiar with, the app may be able to recognize that they’re really tasting lychee, says Cohen.

In each food or drink sampled, Gastrograph tries to make a comprehensive model by pinning down all its flavors, including the hidden ones. The app is “literally reading someone’s mind,” Cohen says, but then quickly corrects himself. “No, if we were reading their mind, they would’ve known they were tasting it. We’re reading their subconscious.”

AFS is selling Gastrograph as a way for food manufacturers to get a better understanding of what they’re producing and how it relates to customers. Some of the company’s first clients were brewers who wanted to make sure their beers maintain the same flavor over time. Brewing depends on agricultural products that naturally vary from year to year, which chafes against the brewer’s need for consistency.

Yards Brewing in Philadelphia, AFS’s longest-running customer, uses the tool routinely. “We just register a user and they sit down with a bartender, get out their phone, and have a tasting. By doing that repeatedly, we can calibrate them as a taster,” says Frank Winslow, Yards’s director of quality control. Since the app knows what the beer should taste like at each stage, tasters can be used to check that the product is on track. “Having those kinds of warnings early in the process is a huge step,” Winslow says.

Once Gastrograph models a food or drink, it can then try to simulate what would happen when you change that food or drink’s flavor or introduce it to new demographics. The app does this using a technique from the field of computational linguistics. Language researchers use machine learning to analyze huge piles of text and create many-dimensional models of the meanings of words. The models can also find relationships between words using operations like “king − man + woman = queen.” Gastrograph uses similar operations in its flavor space to try to predict how new demographics will like foods they haven’t tried.

[Read: The joys and disappointments of being a supertaster]

One of AFS’s new clients is Acelerada, a kind of high-tech skunkworks for Grupo Bimbo, the Mexico-based baking giant. Bimbo is in the midst of bringing Sanissimo, its most popular cracker in Mexico, to the United States. Before the launch, Acelerada ran a pilot program with Gastrograph to test how American consumers felt about the product. Bimbo plans on creating a different version of the cracker with more sea salt sprinkled on top, testing it with Gastrograph, and potentially modifying the recipe for the crackers that go on sale. Acelerada hopes to use Gastrograph in the future to help run small taste panels and make more specialized products to appeal to specific demographics. “It might be the way people do it going forward,” says Alicia Rosas, the manager of Acelerada.

While AFS’s early customers hope to use AI to maintain the flavor of their products or make incremental changes, it’s fair to wonder how far Gastrograph’s effects will go if the tech does prove so useful for predicting people’s subconscious preferences. How much do we want an app poking around in thoughts that are secret even from ourselves? The world is just starting to reckon with how social-media platforms and omnipresent screens can hijack our mental processes in destructive ways, getting us hooked as we wait for the next “like.” If AI can really tap into flavors in the subconscious, will it be used to help make foods that are addictive? Will apps stick to ingredients that are healthful and sustainable or gravitate to whatever will help beat the competitors’?

Cohen, an enthusiastic foodie, says our AI-enabled future will be more tasty than creepy. “Everything is going into targeted, niche. There’ll always be a beer you like more, and it won’t be the same as for me,” he says. “Far from being a dystopian nightmare, there will be better products for everyone.”

But AI is one of the more powerful tools humans have ever devised. Like all tools, its effects depends on its use. Cohen and AFS’s current customers seem to care about making better food and drink, not just moving more product. Here’s hoping that users of artificial intelligence keep that same thought in mind when they employ the technology to redesign what we eat.

Article source here:The Atlantic