11 ms·

Newborn brains aren't blank, they are complex beyond our current ability to understand. All mammals are born with a shocking amount of instinctual knowledge bui

Newborn brains aren't blank, they are complex beyond our current ability to understand. All mammals are born with a shocking amount of instinctual knowledge built right into their genome. All organisms are born pre-trained because if you can't hide or survive the moment you're born, you get eaten.

leptons 2y ago
> if you can't hide or survive the moment you're born, you get eaten. uhhh... no, most newborns can't "hide or survive the moment they're born", no matter the species. I'm sure there are a few examples, but I seriously doubt it's the norm. Many species survive by reproducing en masse, where it takes many (sometimes thousands of) eaten offspring for one to survive to adulthood.
- K0balt 2y ago
  In humans at least, they lack the motor control to attempt to hide , gather, or hunt obviously. But they do plenty of other stuff instinctively. With my latest, we learned that infants are inherently potty trained (defecation) if you pay attention to the cues…and I was surprised to find that that was true, baby communicates the need to go and knows what’s happening without any training at all. Amazed to have almost zero soiled diapers at one month. Makes sense though, I’m pretty sure mammals don’t do well with the insects and diseases that come with waste saturated bed.
- anon7000 2y ago
  The point clearly still stands: every species on the planet has a long list of attributes and behaviors directly attributable to evolution and “pretraining.” And many, many more based on education (the things a lioness teaches her cubs.) I’m not sure we would call anyone intelligent today if they had no education. Intelligence relies on building blocks that are only learned, and the “masters” of certain fields are drawing on decades and decades of learnings about their direct experience. So our best examples of intelligence include experience, training, knowledge, evolutionary factors, what have you — so we probably need to draw on that to create a general intelligence. How can we expect to have an intelligence in a certain field if it hasn’t spent a lot of time “ruminating on”/experiencing/learning about/practicing/evolving/whatever, on those types of problems?
- mystified5016 2y ago
  Please do some research into developmental psychology. Babies are far, far more sophisticated than you seem to believe.
  - leptons 2y ago
    Have you ever seen a human baby attempt to hide upon birth? No? Thought so.
  - taneq 2y ago
    Please have a baby and report back first-hand observations. Yes, they're far, far more sophisticated than most (all?) humans can comprehend, but they're also completely incapable for multiple months after birth. This isn't unexpected, human babies are born at what would still be mid-late gestation in almost any other mammal. That quote about how "the only intuitive interface ever devised was the nipple"? Turns out there's still a fair bit of active training required all around to even get that going. There's no such thing as intuitive, only familiar.

leptons 2y ago

> if you can't hide or survive the moment you're born, you get eaten. uhhh... no, most newborns can't "hide or survive the moment they're born", no matter the species. I'm sure there are a few examples, but I seriously doubt it's the norm. Many species survive by reproducing en masse, where it takes many (sometimes thousands of) eaten offspring for one to survive to adulthood.

K0balt 2y ago
In humans at least, they lack the motor control to attempt to hide , gather, or hunt obviously. But they do plenty of other stuff instinctively. With my latest, we learned that infants are inherently potty trained (defecation) if you pay attention to the cues…and I was surprised to find that that was true, baby communicates the need to go and knows what’s happening without any training at all. Amazed to have almost zero soiled diapers at one month. Makes sense though, I’m pretty sure mammals don’t do well with the insects and diseases that come with waste saturated bed.
anon7000 2y ago
The point clearly still stands: every species on the planet has a long list of attributes and behaviors directly attributable to evolution and “pretraining.” And many, many more based on education (the things a lioness teaches her cubs.) I’m not sure we would call anyone intelligent today if they had no education. Intelligence relies on building blocks that are only learned, and the “masters” of certain fields are drawing on decades and decades of learnings about their direct experience. So our best examples of intelligence include experience, training, knowledge, evolutionary factors, what have you — so we probably need to draw on that to create a general intelligence. How can we expect to have an intelligence in a certain field if it hasn’t spent a lot of time “ruminating on”/experiencing/learning about/practicing/evolving/whatever, on those types of problems?
mystified5016 2y ago
Please do some research into developmental psychology. Babies are far, far more sophisticated than you seem to believe.
- leptons 2y ago
  Have you ever seen a human baby attempt to hide upon birth? No? Thought so.
- taneq 2y ago
  Please have a baby and report back first-hand observations. Yes, they're far, far more sophisticated than most (all?) humans can comprehend, but they're also completely incapable for multiple months after birth. This isn't unexpected, human babies are born at what would still be mid-late gestation in almost any other mammal. That quote about how "the only intuitive interface ever devised was the nipple"? Turns out there's still a fair bit of active training required all around to even get that going. There's no such thing as intuitive, only familiar.