When I imagine brain architecture information I imagine “nerve fiber tract #17 should connect region 182 neuron type F to region 629 neuron type N” and when I imagine brain semantic information I imagine “neuron #526853 should connect to dendrite branch 245 of neuron #674208″. I don’t immediately see how either of these types of things could come from the womb (it’s not like there’s an Ethernet cable in there), except that the brain can learn in the womb environment just like it can learn in every other environment.
Once you have the right type of womb, all the variation in a species’ gene pool can be expressed phenotypically out of just one womb prototype.
Not sure that argument proves much; could also be that the vast majority of the information is the same for all humans.
We do have cases of very preterm infants turning out neurologically normal. I guess that only proves that no womb magic happens in the last 10-15 weeks of gestation.
When I imagine brain architecture information I imagine “nerve fiber tract #17 should connect region 182 neuron type F to region 629 neuron type N” and when I imagine brain semantic information I imagine “neuron #526853 should connect to dendrite branch 245 of neuron #674208″. I don’t immediately see how either of these types of things could come from the womb (it’s not like there’s an Ethernet cable in there), except that the brain can learn in the womb environment just like it can learn in every other environment.
Not sure that argument proves much; could also be that the vast majority of the information is the same for all humans.
We do have cases of very preterm infants turning out neurologically normal. I guess that only proves that no womb magic happens in the last 10-15 weeks of gestation.