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Is genetic memory in higher life forms real? if so can, in theory, an organism be programed for a specific behavior or set of skills? Ie: if genetic memory is a mechanism that does exist, at what resolution, again theoretically, could it manifest itself.

Spiders and snakes inducing fear has been attributed to genetic inheritances. And the well known tropes of nest building for birds, and complicated webs woven by spiders. Which comes close to the mark I am aiming for. But more akin to how Neanderthals are depicted in Clan of the Cave Bear, where the Clan (the Neanderthals) possess "the Memories" specific skills and actual memories of places, smells, knowledge of herbal medicines etc. Though they were born with the Memories most had to be taught or "reminded" that they had them. For instance their speech was part of the Memories, as such as young were raised they only usually needed to hear or see a word or sign once to learn that word or sign, and would sometimes "unlock" ancillary vocabulary along with it.

I've tried to google around for this but there is far too much static on the subject to get a clear picture, to even how it is transmitted down generations, though DNA or 'other' means.

Im interested if genetic memories exist in higher life forms, would, in theory, it be possible to "edit" those memories?

EDIT: When I did my googling on this. the static I encountered were many fringe speculations and metaphysical type articles. Many "it seems to be" nothing on "WHY it seems to be". The hard information type articles where, nearly impossible to digest as they were at such a high level were completely beyond me. Or behind academic paywalls. When I say theoretically possible. Suppose a perfect understanding of a currently accepted reasoned theory. And the skills / tech to execute on that.

EDIT II: Genetic Memory, I have been informed, is not the term I should be concerned with. Instead please replace all occurrences with Instinct.

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    $\begingroup$ It's called instinct, and yes we have some, passing on actual specific memories of your ancestors? no it can't do that, that's why we invented this nifty little thing called 'langauge' 🤗 .. 🤔 .. some learned skills, including language 'might' be a little bit plausible, but if you want them to be able to remember what grandad did on the Tuesday after his fifth birthday you're stretching it far beyond, you'll need something very different for that. $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 13:25
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    $\begingroup$ In your world you can have whatever you want be possible in theory. As written this seems more like a question about real world technology than anything related to establishing facts about a specific world you're building. What facts of your world do you think would prevent editable genetic memories? What facts of your world do you think would enable genetic memories? $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 13:29
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    $\begingroup$ Just a note to help with research: the real-world phenomenon corresponding to the fictional "genetic memory" is called instinct. Yes, so-called higher organisms do have instincts, birds very much more so than mammals. (Birds rely on instinct much more than on learned behaviors; in mammals the opposite is true -- they rely much more on learning than on instinct.) But even humans do have a small number of instinctive behaviors. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 14:15
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    $\begingroup$ @Gillgamesh The phrase "genetic memories" will not go down well here. It used to mean one real thing, but then got taken over by bad sci-fi and now means some different made-up thing. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 14:22
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    $\begingroup$ @Gillgamesh The real thing was looking at the genome for parts that are not reflected physically in the animal to see what the ancestors looked like. For example this dog has four legs but if we look at the genome it suggests they evolved from something with five legs. The genome "remembers" what their ancestors looked like. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 14:45

2 Answers 2

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The ability to speak is genetically programmed into humans. That is why most everyone on the planet speaks some language. It is also why your dog and cat cannot speak to you. Some apes can be taught how to speak but they don't have the right kind of voicebox so sign language is preferred.

I will hazard a guess that the ability to speak a certain language is not genetically programmed anywhere. Languages evolve and change faster than evolutionary drift can keep up. Coding a language into the DNA would require genetic engineering beyond our wildest dreams.

One thing you can code in is the ability to recognize some plants as good to eat and some as poisonous; or recognize some animals as prey and others as predators. This will differ from area to area.

Another thing is how to break an egg:

enter image description here

Yum yum yum.

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    $\begingroup$ I recall an article talking about a study, which tried to tie certain languages to DNA haplogroups, and if they were able to pick up that language more quickly than and language foreign to their own. The article didn't give a determination on the outcome however. :( $\endgroup$
    – Gillgamesh
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 14:53
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    $\begingroup$ @Gillgamesh: The result is mostly likely null, because we have countless examples of people with Jewish or sub-Saharan African heritage learning Indo-European languages as L1 to perfection. For a canonical example, consider Heinrich Heine, who is undoubtedly one of the greatest German poets. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 14:58
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexP You would have to compare Heinrich's Proficiency with German to his proficiency with other languages, and how much effort he put into learning them. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 15:00
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    $\begingroup$ @Daron: German was his L1 (or at least very very similar to his L1, depending on whether his parents spoke to him early in life in standard German or the local dialect or possibly even Yiddish). The effort required to acquire a language after L1 depends heavily on how close or remote it is from languages already known. (For a simple example, Romanians, Bulgarians and Serbs are very very similar anthropologically and genetically; yet for a somebody who has Romanian as L1 it is vaaaastly easier to learn Italian or Spanish than Bulgarian or Serbo-Croat.) $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 15:09
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Epigenetics

In mammals, there is evidence that the environment of a parent affects what instincts and biological traits are passed down at better than random rates as purely evolutionist views would suggest. For example: Kerry Ressler conducted a mouse study that found that training mother mice to fear a certain smell that mice do not normally fear could see that exact fear passed on to the children, even when those children were separated from their parents at birth.

That said, it is very much possible that we have something much closer to genetic memories than we realize. For example, most of the "monsters" in young children's dream are either canines, spiders, or snakes... even if the child has no actual experience with these animals we have a fear that of them that is passed on like a memory that continues to be revisited on one generation after another. It is only as we get older that these fears and dreams subside to be replaced with fears and dreams of our actual environment.

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    $\begingroup$ "most of the "monsters" in young children's dream are either canines, spiders, or snakes" which is most readily explained by instinct and requires nothing fanciful to explain it 👎 $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 15:48
  • $\begingroup$ @Pelinore The question is not if we have instincts, but if instincts can manifest in memory like ways. It's one thing to know that a wolf is dangerous, it's another that nearly every member of the human species has a memory of being chased by a wolf in our dreams. Our instincts are not just cause and effect, but play out in our psyche to be reinforced just as though we've actually experienced the trauma ourselves. By that same mechanism, we could all have a common language or other kinds of memories that we experience and learn from in our childhood dreams as well. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 21:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Pelinore Invoking instinct doesn't explain anything here. Assuming it's correct that young children dream of real creatures they would have no way of knowing about, there would need to be some genetic or epigenetic or similar (passed in breast milk?) explanation. $\endgroup$
    – prosfilaes
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 21:49
  • $\begingroup$ @prosfilaes "instinct doesn't explain anything here" hard wired responses to certain stimuli that are often in some way dangerous to the organism, which includes the basic appearance of common predators that have been dangerous to us since before we were human doesn't explain anything? you don't think they might be included in instinct as subconscious flight or fight training for the young? which is essentially what those dreams are 🤗 they're instinct mandated visualisation training, the same as athletes use. $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Commented Jul 20, 2022 at 5:06
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    $\begingroup$ @Pelinore Hardwired how? Genetics, epigenetics? properties of soul material? Instinct is simply an answer at the wrong level. It's like when people are discussing gravitons and gravity waves, saying it's readily explained by gravity and requires nothing fanciful to explain it. $\endgroup$
    – prosfilaes
    Commented Jul 20, 2022 at 14:12

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