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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Kinda silly that we still can't make an objective measurement of taste, like we can for images, sound.

But we can. What we can't make is an objective measurement of whether something tastes good - much like we can't make a similar objective measurement for whether an image looks good, or a music piece sounds good.

The question in the article was about whether the taste of ketchup has changed over time. Now, can we measure the taste of something, record it, and compare it meaningfully to a new measurement? If there is a difference between both measurements, can we say if that difference is significant or not (i.e. would a human be able to tell the difference)?

Perhaps because at root, its a subjective measure. What did you eat beforehand? What is your level of exhertion? Hydration? What do your genes do to the enzymes in your mouth? What did you grow up/get acclimated to already?

Just look around the world, at the crazy things other cultures eat. Of course taste is subjective! Or genetic; either way, its gonna be hard to be objective in a meaningful way.

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20866663

Oh but we can - chemical composition, acidity, caloric content, etcetera.

But think of it this way; can you make an objective measurement about music or (visual) art? Can you encode someone's reaction to an image in a repeatable, digital form?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com