The evolution of animal behavior does constitute a learning process, but it is learning by the species, not by the individual, and the fruits of this learning process are encoded in DNA. To appreciate the significance of the evolution of the neocortex, consider that it greatly sped up the process of learning (hierarchical knowledge) from thousands of years to months (or less). Even if millions of animals in a particular mammalian species failed to solve a problem (requiring a hierarchy of steps), it required only one to accidentally stumble upon a solution. That new method would then be copied
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