From Ephraim Nissan, Goldsmiths, University of London
You reported on animals made to think inside a virtual world (17 March, p 6). Virtual reality for animals is a concept I proposed nearly 20 years ago in a paper entitled “Cyberspace for animal husbandry” (Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol 8, p 251). I suspect this is widespread in scholarship. Your idea is only recognised and taken up when the time is ripe.
The editor writes:
• Indeed, it seems that “major innovations occur not when an inventor is struck by a bolt from the blue, but when the scientific and social conditions are ripe” (18 February, p 3).
London, UK
