Genes or learned

What plays more of a part in regards to who you are/want to be?

Can genetic tendancies be changed?

 

genes up to a certain point...its the individual who decides what next to do and how far to take it

 

A person's influenced by their genitics and how they were raised.

But when you become an adult, you need to take responsibility for your own life.

I mean, I'll never live out my dreams of Sumo. But the point still stands.

 

and most will never come close to reaching genetic potential

 

anyone ever hear of genetic memory?

 

^Heard of it, yes.

 

I think both, but ultimately how we are raised has the most influence, though there are some characteristic in our genes that will always be there no matter what.

 

My 2 cents:

Our genetics guide our simple needs, our memory guides our wants. If you pay attention you can clearly tell the difference. The "need" for food is very different than "I want a burger". Your memory tells you that a burger is exactly what ya need to fulfill your need to eat *something*.

Curiosity stems from the need to be self sufficient (survival), you have to figure things out to "grow up" naturally.

Our most basic responses are genetic... from there everything is learned.

We are born to live like a tall desert/plain dwelling monkey, we learn to live like a human.

 

They would like us to think our fate is based on our genes, but I don't buy that and I never have nor will.

 

You are ENTIRELY correct.

Catholic "born in sin" is an atrocity that is entirely accepted. Its easy to accept yourself as a naturally bad person, it excuses anything bad you do as "natural". The "hard" way is the good way.

What a bunch of horse shit...

Its definitely not natural for me to listen to a king tell me to go kill every man woman and child across the river because they don't believe in God... after thousands of years of that sort of nonsense the idea has been beaten into every parent to remind their child thats the way things are.

Don't be afraid to name names - "they" doesn't mean much of anything and weakens your argument.

"They" were behind 9/11, see what I'm sayin?

You just have to assume your talking to a complete idiot at all times. It leaves nothing to chance and strengthens what you have to say because it proves you know what your talking about

So now I must ask, who are "they"

 

Epigenetic expression of those genes can be different even in identical twins, but generally the core of ones being is their DNA, the rest is sorta just branching away from it.

 

"You just have to assume your talking to a complete idiot at all times. It leaves nothing to chance and strengthens what you have to say because it proves you know what your talking about"

Assume I'm asking this is the most ignorant sense:

What do you mean?

 

I think hes saying that environmental aspects can cause genes to "activate" and express themselves, modifying or building proteins.

There is no real answer to the nature vs nurture debate, life and consciousness are too interconnected and synergistic in nature to isolate either one entirely.

 

I highly recommend watching the movie Gattaca.

 

There is of course an answer.

i did just hear about an interesting theory that DNA itself is a virus... I think that may just be the case.. our bodies themselves serve DNA - a virus - and replicate as it demands... with the final goal as simple as replication itself. We *are* this virus. Evolution is simply viral mutation.

Perhaps virii are the first lifeforms, it would make perfect sense. since everything is based off DNA.

Perhaps we ourselves are simply slaves to a virus that infected planet earth millions of years ago... a virus that feeds off the planet itself in order to duplicate. We are merely an evolution of *that* virus.

If that is true... we truly are only born with a very simple need system... and that is supposed to be the thing that drives everything we do. We deviate because our line of evolution realized it was best for us to not serve only our needs at every moment... but to set up systems so that our needs can be more readily met. Hence farming/tools etc etc. which is exactly what put the human race on top.

We evolved to exist outside of nature, everything else comes from that.

Our next evolutionary step is creation.

 

I guess in theory it could make sense, because viruses have genes and need a host cell, and we probably came from simple cells. But human life cant be defined by the definition of virus.

And thats true, we have evolved to exist outside of nature. The evolution of consciousness and the cortex parallel developments like language, tools, and its intensified over the past 500 years or so.

I think the next step could be creation, or it could just be a reintegration with nature and the universal forces that we have attempted to sidestep. Interesting post.

 

everything is learned, even little furry creatures learn almost everything from each other.

there are cultural factors as to how and what learning takes place, and these are often popularly mistaken for/misreprisented as, "genetic".

we are born with unique individual inclinations, which affects probability and ease/dificulty of various areas of learning, but those are cognative and spiritual and not "genetic" either.

as for who and what i am, nothing pertaining to the life form my awairness occupies has a damd thing to do with it. only with what opportunities do and do not present themselves, or perhapse i should say how much more and less often.

=^^=
.../\...

 

DNA is in *everything*. A virus is basically just DNA - cells evolved from a virus... it was simply a better way for it to replicate in the first place. Perhaps we can go as far as to assume at one point the earth had some sort of life, virii killed all but the forms of life it could co-exist with and control... the cells we and everything are based on today.

It really does serve to explain evolution... simply a way of the original virus to replicate more readily. It also explains how we won - we exist outside of nature... we can essentially replicate at will.

I haven't done the research to even say this, but I'd bet to *all* dna there is one thing in common, one perhaps extremely basic element... that right there was the original virus... perhaps it really was just a random collection of molecules that reproduced for essentially no reason... through reproduction there is evolution.

It defines our life perfectly - no real purpose other than to create more life... that is *exactly* what a virus exists to do.

Evolution has many paths... infinite in fact. Every evolution is in competition with the other... that is the way things work. We developed our ability to exist outside of nature... our ability to use it for our benefit. This allowed us to continue to seek more and more benefit from nature... and to make our lives easier and easier... so that we may more readily replicate.

Intelligence is a product of evolution, and it is something that may evolve at an incredible rate. Unlike physical evolutions that may take centuries, intelligence can be readily built upon generation by generation. As a result Intelligence may evolve exponentially.

I'm not talking about one person... one person is relatively insignificant in regards to continuing the human race... as an evolutionary line - humans can essentially control their own evolution... as a matter of fact, if something threatens us, we kill it. As a result of that, we also kill eachother... the basic idea of which could perhaps lead to the downfall of the entire race/earth and throw the last few million years of evolution down the shitter.

In regards to creation or a return to the natural way of life (which is essentially stupidity)... I fear that any one organism that feels it can take over the world will find that it has changed the world in such a way that it can no longer exist on it.

We may be mentally capable of living without the natural earth, but we are perhaps millions of years away from physically evolving to that point... at which point perhaps the entire universe will be converted into life/a virus

It does explain alot, actually it explains everything.

 

The older I get, the more I notice automatic responses that are a product of my upbringing. Just little things, but becoming aware gives one the freedom to change. How much of our upbringing is a product of our parent's genetic coding? Or is this just a chicken-and-egg type question?

 

Good answer! Our biology combined with our specific socialization give us the propensity to have the behaviors, addictions, and fears of our parents. It is OUR choice how we respond to those around us and live out our lives.

We can overcome any damage to our spirits. Simply recognizing what the patterns are is the beginning. Then it takes relentless determination to become our own person. My motto, just recently, is: "I am not my past, I choose who I am today."