It looks like we are one step closer to entering the Matrix, ladies, and gentlemen.
In order to keep them happy and satisfied, cows are being given virtual reality goggles while stuck inside in the cold to make them believe they are really outside.
Yep. It's a real thing.
Cows cooped up for the winter are being fitted with virtual reality goggles — so they think they are outside in a summer field.
And the bamboozled bovines appear to be happier and producing more milk.
Snaps of the experiment have been amusing film buffs on social media, where they have been compared to shots from sci-fi classic The Matrix.
The movie shows mankind living in a simulated reality while machines use their bodies as energy sources.
Keanu Reeves stars as Neo — given a choice between taking a red pill to reveal the truth, or a blue pill to forget the revelations.
One fan wrote: "You take the short grass, the story ends, you wake up in the pasture and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the long grass, you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the human hole goes." Another added: "With the sequels The Mootrix Reuddered and The Mootrix Ruminations."
This is all fun and games right now, but this is a real thing that is happening. Not a joke.
This is pretty much the plot of the Matrix except its cows instead of people.
But who knows how long before that changes?
The headsets were developed with vets and first tested on a farm in Moscow. Cattle breeder Izzet Kocak has now put them on two cows in Aksaray, Turkey — and The Sun has herd results have been good.
Their output has gone from 5.8 gallons to 7 gallons a day.
Izzet, who previously played his 180 animals classical music, is so pleased he plans to buy ten more headsets.
He said: "They are watching a green pasture and it gives them an emotional boost. They are less stressed."
Sounds like a recipe for more milk... and also a recipe to slip further into the dystopia we are already living in.
Walmart is already showing us what it'll be like to shop in this virtual reality and Mark Zuckerberg wants us to hang out with him in the Metaverse forever!
