Meet the principal

Act 266. Active Evolution

Active evolution sounds scary at first, but Reiner knows that this phenomenon exists even on Earth without extraordinary magic.

A simple example is that practice makes perfect.

When a person has a plan and scientifically conducts long-distance running exercises, as long as his body does not have irreconcilable contradictions, he will gradually adapt to long-distance running, and his long-distance running results will get better and better. Without external forces to change his physical fitness, he will gradually adapt to long-distance running. Under the circumstances, reach your own limit.

In this way, compared to ordinary people, his running skills have actually evolved slightly, such as swimming, shooting, and even learning, all of which have this effect.

If there is no way to grow through hard work, then what is the point of everything humans do?

But there is actually a problem with this kind of exercise process, that is, it may not be passed on to the next generation.

On Earth, many people believe that the children of two athletes should also have strong athletic talents and cite certain examples to prove it. But in fact, they ignore that on Earth, becoming a famous athlete requires an extremely high level of talent. The physical fitness of the athlete couple will be passed on to their children, making them stronger than their peers.

This is also a deviation in a sense.

Children of ordinary people may not inherit any of the results of their parents' exercise. If they want to become an excellent long-distance runner, they have to start all over again.

This method of evolution has great limitations in nature.

Take the Rainforest Falcon, for example. If the young Rainforest Falcon didn't have such rich oil on its wings, it might die in the first rainy season, leaving it little time to evolve itself. Judging from the information Baptiste gave them, , the breeding season of the rainforest falcon ends in the rainy season, and the newborn chicks will grow up within a month and become hunters with wings that can withstand rain.

In other words, the ability to produce this oil is possessed by the rainforest falcon from birth.

Comparing the blood structure of creatures similar to the Rainforest Falcon, you will find that the organs that produce oil are shared. Only the Rainforest Falcon is unusually developed, which is obviously related to the environment of the demiplane of Erasmus.

Baptiste's theory is that the rainforest falcon secretes oil on its feathers during storms to survive the rainy season, and then passes this trait on to its offspring. Through several generations, this trait is fixed. .

"Everyone, please come with me."

Without saying much, Baptiste led the magic expedition team to the fourth floor. Although it was at the highest place, it seemed particularly dark.

"This area breeds creatures that are active in the demiplane of Erasmus during the dry season. They like dark environments and only move at night. I have conducted certain experiments on some of these individuals."

Baptiste opened the door and saw a huge cage in the room. In the cage, a pair of green eyes were staring directly at Reiner and the others, which made people feel terrified.

When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Reiner saw clearly that this was a creature similar to a wolf, but it had webbed claws for paddling, and its cheeks had shark-like gills on both sides, which seemed to be able to adapt to life in the water. .

"This is a sea wolf. It is similar to the creatures you have seen before. It also has amphibious characteristics, but it also has other abilities."

Baptiste turned on the light, illuminating the room.

Emilia saw that the cage was filled with comfortable straw, water and food. On one side of the cage, there was a mottled board with many characters on it, all of which were the letters of Common Language.

"I trained it to acquire the ability to read."

Baptiste said lightly, surprising everyone except Reiner.

"Literacy?"

People know that parrots can imitate human speech, but they do not understand what it means. This is just a poor imitation, but being able to read is a cognitive breakthrough.

"Can you demonstrate it to us?"

Reiner said that performances such as animal literacy are nothing on earth. They are just fixed behaviors formed by conditioned reflexes and have nothing to do with cognition. He would like to see how Baptiste "teaches" the other party how to read. .

Nodding, Baptiste inserted the board with the writing on it through the gap under the cage. When the sea wolf saw it, he immediately waggled his tail and came to the board.

Well, obviously a conditioned reflex.

Reiner thought silently in his heart.

Baptiste then said a few words to the sea wolf, roughly telling him to perform, and then made a sound that sounded like a letter in Common Language.

I saw that the sea wolf immediately put its claws on the corresponding letters, moving quickly without any lag.

There were several more similar interactions, and each time, Sea Wolf was able to find the corresponding letters accurately and quickly, surprising others.

Reiner frowned and realized something was wrong.

Traditional circus performances all adopt an incentive-punishment model. Punishment is used to eliminate additional instinctive behaviors, and incentives are used to train target behaviors. The conditioned reflex formed in this way is similar to "just stand up and spin twice to get meat." Animals can understand such simple thinking mapping.

But just now, there was no incentive or punishment in the interaction between Baptiste and the sea wolf. Even if the sea wolf recognized the letter correctly, it would not get a food reward. To achieve such an effect, in addition to a long period of Training also requires special individuals.

Judging from the appearance, this sea wolf should be no more than two or three years old. It does not have enough training time. So is it a special individual?

While Reiner was thinking, he heard Baptiste say again.

"This sea wolf is called Lal. In addition to recognizing words, it can also read and express some simple sentences."

This surprised the others, and Reiner's frown deepened.

"Lal, come and say hello to everyone."

Baptiste said, and then he saw the sea wolf's paws moving on the alphabet board, clearly passing through the letters, and stamping out a sentence in Common Language.

"Hello, I'm Lal."

This sentence is somewhat ungrammatical, but the spelling of the words is correct. More importantly, this series of sentences was spelled out by Sea Wolf without the guidance of Baptiste, without considering real wisdom. This requires an extremely strong memory.

Reiner crossed his chest and thought, observing the subtle expressions between Baptiste and the sea wolf.

As Baptiste continued to demonstrate, Reiner suddenly discovered a surprising detail.

Every time before Sea Wolf spells a sentence, he will look at Baptiste. That look is not a look for instructions, but an observation!

This sea wolf is watching Baptiste!

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