I couldn't find a Topic Tag to match this... biology?

Birds upon birth has the knowledge to fly, it's just matter of time before they can utilize what's in their knowledge onto their wings.

Research suggest that DNA not only contain genetic information, but also memory of your ancestors. Just like how the memory of "How to Fly" is passed down from the bird ancestor to their descendent. Also the nature of bats, and so on. You can google more about how these animals learnt from their ancestors' memory, but we'll focus on human for now.

Have you ever heard of stuff like "Person A undergone heart transplant to receive person B's heart (dying), then Person A able to see Person B's history or feel person B?" or... Sometime you just dreamt of stuff you never see before. Or when you went to your homeland (China for e.g) and you felt familiar with the place... All these are from the DNA. You are feeling what your ancestors went through. All the memories and information contained in DNA is being retained... our Brain could not justify these DNA information and so just dump them aside... while processing our own perceived information through our visual sensors and storing em into DNA.

It's like computer you know. You have 1 whole large database of information. 1 Database has 100 tables. but your program only understand 1 table which is your current active tables because ur brain are the 1 who defines the primary key onto this active tables hence it only uses it. But what if someday, you provide the program information such as primary keys into the other 99 historical tables. The program can then accesses all the other tables and get more information from it. Just a scenario on how can we access our historical/ancestors memory/information in DNA.

What do you guys think? Am i right to think this way?

While both matter store data, human brains don't work like hard disk.

Hard disk store data physically, brains do not store memories into DNA. As for the 'how to fly' theory it is half true, DNAs are coded through millions of evolution to make these 'instinct' work, just like how DNA code instruct your brain to make your heart beat, but you can't stop your heart just by thinking about it. Breathing is another example, you can never voluntarily hold your breath till you suffocate, at least nobody tried that and succeed so far

Human brains are more like one really high capacity ram, you unplug the power, all the memories inside are gone.

This post has been edited by SeaGates: Jun 20 2009, 03:27 PM

oh yah yah

my scenario example not precise enuf =P

Biology tag has been added, thanks.

reminds me of Assassin's Creed........... oh well, what if it wasn't memory but rather the DNA makes us behave in certain way, like instruction sets.

i come across the same theories in National geographic as well, where the researcher take DNA from the dead of long time ago and use the DNA to analyze the ancestor and where these people from and so on. the DNA had many information about us from head to toe which are still up for researcher to do research on.

i wish i could remember how my ancestor walk with their knuckles in primate form

yup.. the story line is the same.. memory from great-great grandfather pass down to us.. bird can fly not bcoz of memory from it's ancestor but simply from their own 'instruction set'.. hard-coded into their DNA, i think..

what is memories? Are these thing is a chemical? Biological?
If memories lies deep in our dna, how this helpful serve human , i still fail to recognize how this memory serve its significant rule in human life, currently
Unless....

If we don't have these "memories" you wont even be able to function after and even before birth.

After we die, we become fertilizer. No after death scenario

I am refering to memories that deep in our dna. The way it seems how we work is totally different than animal. We learn something trhough exposure of enviroment, but for animal they learn through automatic, for ex a cow who just birth who suddenly able to walk about 30 minutes - one hour after birth. But human are differ, how they learn is differ, ex u can see that a chinese baby grown up in english spoken , speaks english, or how grown up in mandarin spoken enviroment speaks mandarin. We dont see any human grows up speak ancient language in the past. So how this memories in DNA really has benefit to human, i really dont get it

More elementary things like how to breath, how to call out for our mother when we are hungry as a newborn etc. Perhaps it is in our DNA that makes us more adaptive. We adapt to the environment better then other species, this answers your analogy of infants of similar race but different background.

no so much on memories but the ability to link the feelings or emotions felt from an action to a similar mental state experienced before that stimulated the same area in the brain.

take for example the amygdala of the brain is both activatable through eating chocolate or having sex. therefore the ventral tegmentun area in your head tells you that it oozes the same feeling. so by default, sex = chocolate. but due to physical stimuli we experience, it isnt.

The DNA does store some data from previous generations. Actually, not the DNA itself, but some proteins attached to the DNA.

I've read an article (by Time, if I remember correctly).
However, it is not information about memory or emotions. More like data about the envirionment and growth of the previous generation.

Like the food your parents and grandparents ate, and how fat/skinny they are will affect you.

There's a huge huge difference between 'memory' and 'instinct'. DNA passing on ancestral memory is Science Fiction - go read Frank Herbert's Dune. Instinct on the other hand can be encoded - go look up the reflex actions of babies, or better yet, go look at porn and see what happens to your 'johnny'.

It would require rapid, non-random mutation of the DNA within an individual for it to carry memories as in the examples given by the TS, something that doesn't happen.

there is a difference between the memory carried by your DNA and the memory you have in your brain. the former carries the inherited memory of physical and physiological data from both parents whereas memory in the brain consist of synaptic connection pattern to various parts of your brain.

hello,

i was new here, but not new in this field discussion.

our DNA have ability to keep or catch memorable event. once it catch, it keep in DNA.

but, lately i read LEN HOROWITZ articles and he say that out junk DNA (we use only 2 from 24 strand...correct if im wrong), have the abilities to store the event and more.

this junk DNA is still 'sleeping' inside our body but we 'they awake', u will have so huge of potential that can shake the world.

DNA just no keeping the event of our life time only, but also produced knowledge and make us learning from 'our self'...yes, it call 'self learning'.

i give u example. if u run from a dog...then u hear a voice from ur heart to hide.. that 'voice' is from ur own DNA or in spiritual term, we call "inner self".

nowadays, people cant discover these junk DNA but with spiritual exercise like meditation or by sufism way, u will able to active this DNA to high level.

in my blog -nunsanaga.blogspot.com-...i discuss about a group call indigo.
these people have huge ability and potential. but, at beginning, they cant handle 'the give' but once they have, they can archive more than knowledge that we heard today.

so...it cross..all these cross over. our DNA, metaphysic, religion and more.

what say you?!

Assassin Creed? lol

whatever ... dun worry about this issue .... the scientist will find the missing link (maybe someday, maybe not in our lifetime)
like they're finding the missing between Human and apes ..

in my opinion ... i prefer to keep my memories for myself only (i'm a private person) ... obviously you're not going to let your child have the memories of what you and your wife did to produce your child, do you? it'll have trouble if your child have mistaken identity ... lol

i say DNA has little or nothing to do with metaphysic/religion etc. those things belong to the realm of pseudo science/sociology etc.
the junk DNA you refer to is not actually junk. they may code for other things like RNA and act as promoter/regulators for gene expression. even though we have the complete sequence of the human genome, but we still have much to learn in terms of its function
and you can't 'discover' or 'activate' your junk DNA through meditation. that's just jumbling pseudo-science with actual science to make it sound credible. researchers can discover possible functions of supposedly junk DNA, but that's it.

Unless there is evidence that a person's dna changes from a day to day basis, there is no way for dna to store memories.