Posted: Aug 09, 2010 5:58 am
Templeton wrote:Gallstones wrote:Sounds good Templeton, and plausible----except for the DNA part.
DNA reading. Messages sent to DNA.
Well, there was a rather broad amount of information to pack in to a couple paragraphs.
Perhaps I should have stated that the genetic code is within the DNA. The body communicates through neuro-chemical messengers, from the brain to the genes in a feedback loop back to the brain.
Better?
I think the problem is the Lamarckian assumption you seem to be making; that is, "if we change our behavior then we change our genes". It's true that certain choices we make may influence the genetic expression of some genes (to some degree), or that our environment may physically change our genes through mutation, but it's not like the choices we make will change our genetic behaviors.
Unless you are simply referring to situations like habituation, which you referred to earlier with your "driving a car" example from another thread. In which case we are able to change our "genetic expression" in that we aren't limited to our fixed-action patterns, but our behavior is obviously still controlled by environmental variables - and that, of course, doesn't change our DNA.