# Genetic Memory **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 24, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151 "2011-07-24T04:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/21 "2011-07-25T01:19:42Z")
isn’t “genetic” memory evolution? how we adapt? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/22 "2011-07-25T01:21:11Z")
> [@traveler1969](#): > > Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds! - Albert Einstein [End of joke]“Of course, they also laughed at Bozo the Clown”[/End of joke] ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/23 "2011-07-25T01:22:38Z")
I’m not, but my father’s maternal grandmother’s paternal grandmother won’t shut the hell up about it. I can’t sleep some nights for her babbling in my subconscious. It’s “I think we created dragons because of genetic memories of dinosaurs” this and “and night- why are we still anxious about night? It’s from when that was when the predators came this” and “Call him genocidal or homicidal or any other cidal, but when he wore those tight white pants that looked like they were painted on Andrew Jackson was smokin’, like genetic memory!” this. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/24 "2011-07-25T01:27:19Z")
> [@traveler1969](#): > > Have you ever seen the account of a certain young man who lost half of his skull & brain in an accident. It showed pictures of him with literally the entire top right half of his skull gone. Doctors fashioned a new right hemisphere of his skull & replaced it under the skin of his head to make him look normal, but with half of his brain gone, he can still function & think and reason normally. The left half of his brain has been able to take over those functions normally controlled by the right half. That’s called “brain plasticity,” and it’s a miraculous ability of neural pathways to compensate for missing tissue. New, undamaged neural pathways take over for the damaged or missing pathways. Nothing “genetic memory” about it. > [@traveler1969](#): > > Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds! - Albert Einstein This seems to be a rallying cry of people who have a theory that can’t be backed up with evidence. There’s a reason why Einstein is an example of genius that we all remember - because he was 1) rare and 2) some amount of luck and 3) made some breakthrough theories that could be (for the most part) investigated by and backed by science. ---
**Author:** ![traveler1969](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@traveler1969](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/traveler1969)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/25 "2011-07-25T01:28:18Z")
This may be correct in the some sense of the word, but evolution has been occurring since the beginning of time. Who is to say that the kind of genetic memory I’m talking about isn’t more than that. I know that some people say I’m wrong, but people told Columbus that he was wrong too, that what he believed was impossible. They were, eventually, proved to be wrong. Thank you for a civil reply! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/26 "2011-07-25T01:35:26Z")
> [@traveler1969](#): > > This may be correct in the some sense of the word, but evolution has been occurring since the beginning of time. No it hasn’t. Please look up the definition of that word before you use it again. Thank you. > [@traveler1969](#): > > Who is to say that the kind of genetic memory I’m talking about isn’t more than that. Scientists who have studied this. > [@traveler1969](#): > > I know that some people say I’m wrong, but people told Columbus that he was wrong too, that what he believed was impossible. Columbus was right, and you are wrong. > [@traveler1969](#): > > They were, eventually, proved to be wrong. Thank you for a civil reply! As have you. You’re welcome! ---
**Author:** ![traveler1969](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@traveler1969](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/traveler1969)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/27 "2011-07-25T01:43:46Z")
You can think I’m crazy. That doesn’t matter to me. I’ll believe what I believe, you can believe what you want to believe. We are all legends in our own minds. What some people believe to be fantasy, may someday be proven to be fact. Enough of this ignominious repartee! Finding this site was an accident and a silly mistake it has turned out to be! ---
**Author:** ![traveler1969](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@traveler1969](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/traveler1969)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/28 "2011-07-25T01:54:30Z")
To Czarcasm …you are not as think as you smart you are!!! Moderate this… !!! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/29 "2011-07-25T01:57:39Z")
> [@traveler1969](#): > > Who is to say that the kind of genetic memory I’m talking about isn’t more than that. So thinking about things changes the DNA in my sperm? How does that work? ---
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/30 "2011-07-25T01:57:53Z")
> [@traveler1969](#): > > Centuries ago, people thought the world was flat. If you’re talking about people in the time of Columbus, this is untrue. Almost all educated people knew perfectly well that the Earth was round. Just like almost all educated people now know that genetic memory is impossible. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/31 "2011-07-25T02:00:46Z")
> [@Meyer6](#): > > If you’re talking about people in the time of Columbus, this is untrue. Almost all educated people knew perfectly well that the Earth was round. Just like almost all educated people now know that genetic memory is impossible. Wasn’t Columbus’ naysayers said he was going to run out of water, not fall off the earth? People since Ancient Greece new pretty much exactly the diameter of the earth, they just had no clue that there’d be a continent across the Atlantic. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151/32 "2011-07-25T02:02:46Z")
> [@traveler1969](#): > > To Czarcasm …you are not as think as you smart you are!!! Yes, I am. > [@traveler1969](#): > > Moderate this… !!! As you wish. [Moderator Note]Closing thread.[/Moderator Note] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory/590151.md?page=1)