[43][ANIMAL TEMPLATES]
Now the information in each of these boxes has to be filled out
according to certain principles. You are not allowed to specify that an
animal has sometimes four legs and sometimes two wings and two
legs. You have to decide which is true or leave the box empty. In the
same way, the box for "reproduces" will be filled out with either one
answer or none. This is why I compared templates to official forms.
These ask you to give your one given name, not a choice of nicknames
your friends call you. This is very important because it means that
some generalizations are produced automatically when you learn a
new concept. The move from "this one has live cubs" (a particular
fact) to "they all have live cubs" (a generalization) is made automati-
cally because the animal template does not allow several different val-
ues in the "reproduces" box. So the child does not have to learn how
an animal reproduces more than once for each animal kind.
The child is told: "This is a walrus. See how big her belly is! She'll
probably give birth to cubs very soon." A few days later this child may
well tell a friend that walruses do not lay eggs; they get pregnant and
deliver live babies. This is not a replicationof information she received
WHATISTHEORIGIN?