> But some of the powers, like remembering ancestors memories barely even exist in humans today. That would be a valid point... except why are they still breed

> But some of the powers, like remembering ancestors memories barely even exist in humans today. That would be a valid point... except why are they still breeding for things like intelligence? That was my point. Thousands of generations later, they're still breeding for basic stuff like enhanced intelligence, which makes little sense under pretty much everything we know about intelligence's genetics. > The field of epigenetics has proven that a starving parent can alter how the genetics of even grandchildren express themselves. The extent to which transgenerational heritable epigenetics matters in humans has been wildly exaggerated by the media and the field is rife with overinterpretations, small samples, and non-replication. Not to mention, even that hype didn't exist when Herbert was writing it, so he couldn't've been thinking of it. I am fairly sure he was gesturing towards a more Akashi-Records-style psi mechanism with access granted by ancestry, not actual encoding of memories into spare DNA (which among other things would mean no ancestor would remember anything after having a kid). > To extend the functionality to the level of recording memories would take almost as long as it took for DNA to become as fancy as it did from the original RNA molecules that could produce more of themselves without any enzymes or DNA having developed yet. Neurons already re-edit and splice their chromosomal DNA, so the mechanisms are already there for at least part of it.