In fact, what you do or what happens to you can change your genes or change how they influence you. Smoking damages your genes, for example. Children who grow up in isolation, denied any socialization, will effectively have very low IQs, for another.
The following "Lost Lectures" discussion by Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics Steve Jones explains this reasonably well, I think.
We also know that which groups of genes become active can depend entirely on the environment the organism exists in, including the social environment.
Here's a TED Talk by neuroscientist Gene Robinson about his research on bees, genetics, and social environment that discusses this.
My current hypothesis is that the free will vs. determinism debate will play out the same way. To paraphrase Forrest Gump's conclusion on this matter, maybe it's both, happening at the same time. But, I would shape that a little by saying, maybe it's both, interacting with each other continuously.
If you're interested, here's another TED Talk by human evolutionary biologist Irene Gallego Romero. She has further interesting examples, but this is mostly a reiteration of the two above.
7 comments:
I'd put it this way.
Your genes determine your potential, the universe of probable outcomes.
Your environment, including your own efforts, determines which of the outcomes is realized.
Sure, but your environment also affects your genes. Your genes are not some fixed blueprint; they change, depending on environment, social influences, your own actions, etc. So your potential is malleable, not fixed.
My current hypothesis is that the free will vs. determinism debate will play out the same way.
BF Skinner had his own internal contradiction on this subject. He was convinced that we're all prisoners of the stimulus-response environment in which we live: free will is a myth; we must respond in particular ways to particular behavioral stumuli because of the reinforcers that get paired with some and the punishments that get paired with others.
But he was equally convinced we could shape (his term of art) our behaviors by adjusting both the stimuli to which we voluntarily subject ourselves and the reinforcers/punishments we voluntarily pair with those consciously selected stimuli.
Eric Hines
" the free will vs. determinism debate will play out the same way ... maybe it's both, happening at the same time ...interacting with each other continuously."
In my faith tradition, my Great Teacher attempted to reveal the Ultimate Truth in simple analogies -- Goodness depends on both Good Seed and Good Soil.
There is a problem, inherent in the system, caused by a Great Enemy, of Bad Seed -- determined by its innermost nature to yield Bad (or no) fruit, and destined only for a Great Fire.
Also there are many kinds of Bad Soil, into which even Good Seed sometimes falls. Which bit of what seed falls into where ever the Badness arises is NOT intentionally determined. And not always hopeless.
For instance, Bad Birds which feast upon Good Seed can be actively driven away -- or for a short time deterred with mere scarecrows. The more Good Soil that can be protected, the better the harvest.
Similarly, Good Seed, swept up from Rocky Soil, may thrive if transplanted to a place of Good Soil. (Those who would sneer at such a lesson call the Good Soil, in such a parable, the "Magic Dirt" lesson, and they would mock and discourage us all from ever attempting such sweeps.)
It is a matter of faith, not evidence, or the measure of things seen. And yet the lessons are old, very old, and have been demonstrated to be useful in many circumstances. Seed AND Soil, Nature AND Nurture, even Instinct and Reason.
I have my doubts about those who would preach one doctrine to the exclusion of the other.
That's a fruitful analogy, J. Like seed and soil, the plants that grow change the soil, taking some nutrients out, putting others in. It seems like only the seed changes, but it's both. The seed changes the soil, too.
Maybe genes aren't "plans" so much as recording media. I don't remember where, but I read once that some experiences and the responses they elicit can be embedded in our genes for five generations. I'll watch these videos now...
People are getting. Not quite there yet.
Post a Comment