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> I would propose that it is possible that some animal "instincts" are really inherited memories from their ancestors. I think that's pretty testable, just fin
by foobarbazqux 13y ago
> I would propose that it is possible that some animal "instincts" are really inherited memories from their ancestors.
I think that's pretty testable, just find a way to condition the ancestors and see if the conditioning shows up in the offspring.
- chc 13y agoBut it's obvious that he's not saying all memories are inherited (at least, not in a way we can detect), so a negative result is not disproof.
- foobarbazqux 13y agoA negative result disproves it for the specific kind of memory, e.g. fear of spiders, but you're right that the disproof can't be straightforwardly transferred to claims about other kinds of memories. The hypothesis is so unlikely given what we know about the brain and reproduction that we'll assume false by default for all memories. Thus the onus is on the experimenter to provide a positive result for some case and also demonstrate that there isn't something else going on.