This is a separate point from yours, but one thing I’m skeptical about is the following:
The Genome Anchor takes the information in the human genome and looks at it as a kind of compression of brain architectures, right? But that wouldn’t seem right to me. By itself, a genome is quite useless. If we had the DNA of a small dinosaur today, we probably couldn’t just use ostriches as surrogate mothers. The way the genome encodes information is tightly linked to the rest of an organism’s biology, particularly its cellular machinery and hormonal features in the womb. The genome is just one half of the encoding, and if we don’t get the rest right, it all gets scrambled.
Edit: OK here’s an argument why my point is flawed: 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. This suggests that the vast majority of the information is just in the genome.
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.
This is a separate point from yours, but one thing I’m skeptical about is the following:
The Genome Anchor takes the information in the human genome and looks at it as a kind of compression of brain architectures, right? But that wouldn’t seem right to me. By itself, a genome is quite useless. If we had the DNA of a small dinosaur today, we probably couldn’t just use ostriches as surrogate mothers. The way the genome encodes information is tightly linked to the rest of an organism’s biology, particularly its cellular machinery and hormonal features in the womb. The genome is just one half of the encoding, and if we don’t get the rest right, it all gets scrambled.
Edit: OK here’s an argument why my point is flawed: 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. This suggests that the vast majority of the information is just in the genome.
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.