Thursday, November 3, 2011

When Lab Rats get loose

I was doing a few experiments on my instinctless norns the other day, just a few things to test their learning patterns here and there, when I suddenly felt the urge to go read a book.

Usually I will pause or close DS when I leave the computer, but apparently my need was so great that I completely forgot about it, and I ended up not returning back to the computer that night.

When I woke up the next morning, I found when might be considered normal in most creatures worlds-- a complete population explosion. But the fact that it happened in a world that housed no more than one female and one male instinctless norn, I have to say I was surprised that the population was not only maxed out, but had gone ten generations without my interference.

When I first dabbled with instinctless norns, I noted how completely helpless they were, how they needed the hand to show them the way in the world or they would most certainly starve, or at the very least, never breed. Once educated, they generally can fend for themselves, but even if they do manage to discover the joys of pushing each other and producing offspring, their children would have to fend for themselves too and learn it all over again. Initially I ran a script for a while that generated instinctless norns by the dozen, figuring generating large amounts would increase the chances of a pair stumbling through the motions of breeding. In the eight hours or so I ran the script (in fast ticks, no less) there was still only one successful breeding.

So if dozens of creatures couldn't survive before, why the sudden population explosion from just two norns this time?

First off, the pair I started with was, to some extent, pre-trained. That certainly gave them an advantage-- they knew how to eat, at least. They seem to have gathered near the food-spitter-outer-- which caters quite well to instinctless norns since they don't know how to work normal vendors. Since they don't know how to work call buttons either, they tended to stay on that platform. Those that wandered off probably couldn't find their way back and died out quickly.

But I guess that the key to their excess proliferation was two things: one, I had modified their stimulus genes so that they got nearly as much boredom reduction pushing other norns (and critters, and machines, and most things in general in some attempt to give creatures a chance to develop their own sort of hobbies) as they did playing with toys. Secondly, there were no toys or really many interesting things at all on that platform. Only other norns.

I suspect these norns learned very quickly that playing with each other was the best way to amuse themselves, and when they were old enough to breed, found that this "playtime" had a side effect of reducing sex drive and producing lots of offspring as well. I'm really rather surprised-- I have seen a lot of "superbreeder" norns that push each other constantly because they have been engineered to have constantly high sex drive or strong breeding instincts or have had a brain-edit to force them to obsess over pushing norns, but it's kind of neat to see superbreeding as a learned behavior rather than a strictly genetic one.

Also kind of interesting to see how different circumstances that one might normally consider difficult can greatly assist a population's survival. If the world had been littered with toys or other stimuli, the norns may not have learned to push each other

I exported one of these creatures at random for your breeding pleasure-- download Extra-small Crime from the TCR if you so wish, and let me know what he gets up to in your world!


  1. Population explosion, indeed! It's very interesting that these instinctless Norns survived, but your explanation made a lot of sense. I love reading about these tests and experiments: It really opens up another side of the game! Learning definitely took place. And do I see some elders sprinkled in the group? Seems like they fared well in the end!

    I also have to say I love the video you linked to: That's exactly how I feel when I'm reading! Don't you dare interrupt me! Ha ha!

  2. That's really quite incredible, and shows that Norns really are capable of learning very well.
    I'd love to get a run down on the latest generations genetics to see if any random mutations have cropped up.