Chapter 16 Section 16

Never before have the people of Dolphin Island welcomed their visitors with such mixed feelings.Everyone on the island came to the pool except those who went to sea.The large transport helicopter flew from the south.It was flown in from a whale research station on the island of Tasmania in southeastern Australia. The helicopter hovered above the pool, and the wind from the propeller caused an uproar in the pool.Then, the two doors under the belly of the helicopter opened, and an extra-large cargo net slowly descended. When it reached the water surface, waves and foam suddenly rose on the water—at this moment, the net bag was empty.

The originally empty pool is now bustling.This is the largest and most ferocious tourist on the island to date.At this time, it is swimming along the pool to explore the new environment. Johnny, however, is a little disappointed when he sees an orca for the first time.The orca was smaller than he had imagined, though larger than a dolphin.After the transport helicopter left, they didn't have to talk at the top of their voices.Johnny told Mick what he thought. "It's a female orca," Meek said. "It's only half the size of a male orca. That's how we can afford it. It only eats 5,000 kilograms of fish a day.

Despite his prejudice against orcas, Johnny had to admit that this female orca was very beautiful.The body color of the killer whale is black and white - black on the back and white on the belly, with a large white patch behind each eye - very eye-catching.Therefore, it quickly gained a nickname: Xuemei. After Xuemei traveled around the pool, she began to observe the world around it.It put its huge head out of the water, looked at the crowd with witty and intelligent eyes, and then opened its big mouth lazily. Seeing the terrifying nail-like teeth in Xuemei's mouth, the crowd let out a murmur of admiration.Perhaps Xuemei knew the impression it made on the audience, so she yawned again, and opened her mouth wider, so that people could see her terrible sharp teeth more clearly.Dolphin teeth are small and shaped like needles.These teeth are used only for catching fish, and swallowing them whole in one gulp.But killer whales have the same tooth function as sharks. They can bite through seals, dolphins or people with one bite.

Killer whales have been transported to Dolphin Island.Now everyone wants to see what experiments the professor will do with killer whales.For the first three days, no one disturbed Xuemei, just let her get used to the new environment and slowly regain her composure from the excitement of the long-distance trip.Xuemei has been caught for several months, and she is very used to contact with humans, so she quickly settled down in her new "home". If you give her fish, she will eat it no matter whether she lives or dies. all clean. The task of feeding the killer whales was given to the Mick family.The job was generally done by his father, Joe Nolu, and his uncle, Stephen, the captain of the Flying Fish.They took the job initially just for extra income, but quickly fell in love with it.Xuemei is very intelligent - which should not surprise everyone, but she is also very gentle and kind - which is a bit out of the nature of killer whales.Mick likes Xuemei very much, and as soon as Mick approaches the pool, Xuemei also looks very happy-if Mick leaves without giving her something to eat, she will also look disappointed.

When Professor Kazan was sure that Xuemei had completely settled in the new environment and was satisfied with the new life, he started his first phase of the experiment.The professor taped some simple phrases in the dolphin language through the underwater loudspeaker in order to see Xuemei's reaction. At first, it was very loud.Xuemei ran around in the pool, looking for the place where the sound came from.Apparently, killer whales often associate the sound made by dolphins with food, thinking that someone brought it food. After only a few minutes, Xuemei immediately realized that she had been deceived, because there were no dolphins in the pool.Since then, it has listened carefully to the sounds the professor made in the water, but has been reluctant to follow those sounds.Professor Kazan originally hoped that Xuemei would respond in the killer whale's own language after hearing the dolphin's talk.However, it never made a sound, which made the professor's plan come to nothing.

Little progress was made when tape recordings in the language of killer whales were later taught.He used the storage system of the "Oscar" computer to find out the word for "dolphin" in the killer whale language.Of course, you can never go wrong with "Oscar," and the orca language has many words that mean "dolphin."There are many nouns for fish that are almost identical in killer whale language and dolphin language.Perhaps their two languages ​​are derived from the same ancient etymology, like English and German, or French and Italian.Professor Kazan hopes that this inference is correct, because it will greatly facilitate his work.

Although Xuemei seemed very unwilling to cooperate, Professor Kazan was not very disappointed because he had other plans.Once the next step is implemented, it doesn't matter whether Xuemei is willing to cooperate or not.Two weeks after the killer whales arrived at Dolphin Island, a group of volunteer technicians from India came and began installing various electronic equipment around the pool.As soon as the preparations were over, the pool was drained.Xuemei was furious, but there was nothing she could do, so she had to lie helplessly at the bottom of the pool. Then 10 people took a strong rope and put a wooden frame on Xuemei's head to fix it.The shelf is made in the shape of a killer whale's head.Xuemei was upset of course, and even Mick felt sorry for it, because he was also involved in the work.He watered Xuemei's body with a hose to prevent the orca's skin from drying out in the sun.

"Nobody's going to hurt you, Big Sister," Mick assured Snow Sister. "The work will be over soon, and you'll be swimming in the pool again in no time." At this time, a technician approached Xuemei with something like a cross in his hand.That thing was a bit like a hypodermic with a needle, and a bit like a drill.He carefully selected a spot on the back of the orca's head, placed the needle against it, and pressed the button.With a low and sharp rattling sound, the needle pierced through the skull and pierced Xuemei's brain deeply, as effortlessly as a hot knife inserted into butter.

This shocked and pained Mick greatly.In fact, Xuemei herself felt nothing.Anyone with a little knowledge of biology knows that the brain has no feelings, and you can cut it open without pain or distress.This physiological structure is indeed a bit strange, and Mick and ordinary people do not understand this strange physiological phenomenon. Technicians drilled 10 holes in Meek's head and connected the holes with wires that led to a flat, streamlined box that was fixed to the orca's head.The entire operation was completed in less than an hour.Then the water was put back into the pool, and Xuemei swam back and forth in the pool again. The operation just now seemed to have no effect on it.But Mick seemed to feel that when Xuemei looked at him, there was an expression of hurt feelings in her eyes, as if to say that she had been fooled by her trusted friend.

The next day, Dr. Saha arrived at Dolphin Island from New Delhi.He is a member of the Dolphin Institute Advisory Board and a longtime friend of Professor Kazan.He is also an authority on human brain science in the world - the human brain, which is the most complex organ in human beings. The physiologist watched Xuemei cruising back and forth in the pool and said: "The last time I used this instrument was on an elephant. When the experiment was completed, I could precisely control the elephant's trunk to type." "Here, we don't need such great skills," Professor Kazan said. "We just ask to be able to control Xuemei's activities and teach it not to eat dolphins."

"If my guys get the electrodes in the right places, I promise I can do that. But first I have to map the EEG of the killer whale." Drawing an EEG is a delicate task that requires patience, taking your time, and is highly technical.Dr. Saha sat in front of those instruments for several hours, observing Xuemei's actions in the pool: it dived for a while, floated up to bask in the sun for a while, cruised lazily along the edge of the pool for a while, and fed Mick for a while. its fish.During this period, its brain keeps sending out brain waves, just like an orbiting artificial satellite keeps sending out radio waves.The box affixed to its head is actually a radio transmitter.The brain waves detected by the probes are recorded on magnetic tape so that Dr. Saha can study the relationship between the movements of the killer whales and the way those brain waves move. Finally, the doctor finally completed all the preparatory work and began to implement his first step.This time, instead of receiving Xuemei's brainwaves, he input them into Xuemei's mind. The results were both fascinating and eerie - almost magic rather than science.As long as Dr. Saha turns a knob or turns off a switch, he can make this giant swim obediently to the left or right, turn around or swim in the shape of "8", and make her stay motionless on the water.In short, what Dr. Saha wants it to do, it will do whatever it wants, and there is no room for disobedience every day.In contrast, Johnny used the communicator to control the actions of Suzie and Sputnik. Although it was still impressive at the time, it seems that it is really nothing. But Johnny didn't mind.Suzie and Sputnik were his friends, and he would give them the freedom to choose. If they didn't obey him for some reason--which happened quite often--that was their right.But Xuemei has no freedom of choice.The electric current injected into its brain made it a robot: it could not have its own will, but could only obey the orders given to it by Dr. Saha. The more Johnny thought about it, the more uneasy he became.Is it possible to control human actions in the same way?People told him that this kind of experiment had been done many times on human beings in the laboratory.It is a scientific tool, and it can serve humanity; but it is as dangerous as atomic energy when used for evil purposes. Of course, there should be no doubt that Professor Kazan's use of this tool was entirely benign -- at least for the benefit of the dolphins.But what puzzled Johnny was how the professor would use this tool.At this time, the experiment entered the next stage, and an artificial dolphin was transported to the island; this artificial dolphin was as big as a real dolphin and was driven by an electric motor. It was made 20 years ago by a scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory.He wants to study the principles and mechanisms of dolphin swimming.It has been calculated that the muscles of dolphins could not have allowed them to swim faster than 10 miles an hour - but in fact, they can easily reach twice that speed. Therefore, the scientist made this dolphin model with various instruments installed in it to study the physiological mechanism of dolphins swimming.His research was unsuccessful, but the elaborate model of the dolphin survived because no one had the heart to destroy it, even though its maker no longer needed it due to a failed project.Technicians in the lab often clean the models and put them on public display.Professor Kazan heard about the dolphin model exhibition and borrowed it. When the model is put into the pool, people who watch it will think it is a real dolphin if they don't know it in advance.But the results of the experiment were disappointing.Xuemei glanced at the large mechanical toy contemptuously, but refused to pay any attention to it. "I was worried about that happening," Professor Kazan said, not as disappointed as others seemed.Like all scientists, he has long known that most scientific experiments fail.Although he made a fool of himself in public, he didn't feel any embarrassment about it. (At one point, the great Darwin blew his trumpet for hours in a vegetable garden to see how the sound affected crops!) "The killer whale may have heard the motor and knew it was a fake dolphin. See Come on, there is no other way but to use real dolphins as bait." "You're going to recruit volunteers, aren't you?" Professor Saha joked. The joke had an unexpected repercussions on the professor.Professor Kazan seriously considered Dr. Saha's suggestion, then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I had to do it," he said.