I can't find the actual article but I remember reading an article about an experiment where they conditioned cockroaches to do a maze.
They breed several generations (something like 20), then took those new roaches to the same maze and they were able to navigate after a few attempts even though they've never been near or seen it before
How's that for mind blowing?

While this doesn't answer the question about 'self-evolution', I believe if mental genetic traits can be passed down via DNA, why can't evolution happen within ourselves?
What is learning then if not a form of evolution?

___________________
"...End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path...one that we all must take.
The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all change to silver glass...and then you see it...
...white shores...and beyond...the far green country under a swift sunrise."

Last edited by Fir3start3r on Sep-03-2005 at 04:31

Psy-T, I was about to make a thread just like this.. weird. But mine focuses more on the relationship between diet and tall genes.

What I was going to post:

Will people always be taller than their parents? Suppose your parents are 6' and 5'10 ft. Is it possible for you to be something like 6'3?

I always see boys who are taller than both of their parents, and this got me thinking about that 'maximum' height that's embedded in our genes. It isn't really an average of both parent's height is it?

If this is so, would it mean that your diet/exercising can bring out some recessive tallness if it's better than what your parent's diet was? Is this the rule or exception?

I'm DYING to know this.

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"If she's old enough to crawl, she's already in position." -- Pedobear

I believe in self evolution. When my evolution level passes 10,000 my hair turns gold and my penis inflates to thrice its normal size.

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quote:

Addy fo SHADDY ! hiccup, KA pladdy.

quote:

Originally posted by Psy-T does self evolution (on a mental level) occur? i am inclined to believe it does, as i feel i have managed to 'delete' most of the normal 'human' traits which are unnecessary in my eyes, while developing the ones that do assist me in attaining my goals. if it does occur, are everyone capable of controlling their evolution to the same extent i can? can it really be counted as evolution? meaning, will the traits we strive to develop pass to our offspring? will the ones we eliminated dissapear from our lineage?

To put it shortly, no. Theoretically you can argue that your offspring have a bigger chance than others to have a mindset similar to your own, so that they are more likely to share your desires than are those children who are not your offspring, but aside from that it doesn't really work.

quote:

on a physical level, does our diet and our developed physique pass on to our offspring?

No, unless you eat radioactive or genome affecting dinners.

quote:

if we can impact evolution... how far can we take it? for instance, on the mental side, do we have any limits on how far we can change it? (not necessarily within the confines of one generation)

Well we can only impact it in a way to selectively breed or modify our genetic code so the question is not really applicable. On a personal level I don't think you can pinpoint a strict limit on how far you can change your mindset if you're really willing to do it.

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1+1=10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology

i found this ebook to be very good:
http://www.trans4mind.com/transformation/index.html

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky are interesting philosophers to look into also

quote:

Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 To put it shortly, no. Theoretically you can argue that your offspring have a bigger chance than others to have a mindset similar to your own, so that they are more likely to share your desires than are those children who are not your offspring, but aside from that it doesn't really work. No, unless you eat radioactive or genome affecting dinners. Well we can only impact it in a way to selectively breed or modify our genetic code so the question is not really applicable. On a personal level I don't think you can pinpoint a strict limit on how far you can change your mindset if you're really willing to do it.

d'oh, forgot this thread

tito, could you please write what brings you to your conclusions?

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quote:

Originally posted by tathi i found this ebook to be very good: http://www.trans4mind.com/transformation/index.html Gurdjieff and Ouspensky are interesting philosophers to look into also

i read quite a lot of the content on that site, and none of it had anything much to do with my questions about whether we can direct evolution

it did pat my ego though

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quote:

Originally posted by Aquarian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology

i dont think that description fits what i was describing, as it's completely based on the concepts of the normal 'passive' evolution alone... and not of actively affecting it (or have i missed something?)

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Psy-T - Down The Rabbit Hole (400minute long acid set)

quote:

Originally posted by Psy-T d'oh, forgot this thread tito, could you please write what brings you to your conclusions?

quote:

To put it shortly, no. Theoretically you can argue that your offspring have a bigger chance than others to have a mindset similar to your own, so that they are more likely to share your desires than are those children who are not your offspring, but aside from that it doesn't really work.

It is often the case that psychological diseases like schizophrenia or inclination to violence are genetic. It is also the case that identical twins often have affinity towards similar occupations.

quote:

No, unless you eat radioactive or genome affecting dinners.

Eh, what is being carried to your offspring is your DNA, not your achievements. Basically meaning if you're naturally big and strong you'll probably have big and strong children. But if you're naturally small and weak, your children will be small and weak regardless of the fact how much time you spend at the gym. Now, both you and your children can go to the gym more frequently than other people and end up being big and strong, because your body adapts to the stimuli induced upon it. But in no way can those stimuli be carried on to your offspring. It's like loosing an arm in a war and then having your child born without an arm.

quote:

Well we can only impact it in a way to selectively breed or modify our genetic code so the question is not really applicable. On a personal level I don't think you can pinpoint a strict limit on how far you can change your mindset if you're really willing to do it.

It means that if we continually kill stupid people and have smart people have many children ultimately human race should become smarter. If you're not smart but try really hard you can reach the level of smarter but more lazy people, but your children will not benfit much from it except for the social aspect of being raised in a better environment.

___________________
1+1=10

quote:

Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 It is often the case that psychological diseases like schizophrenia or inclination to violence are genetic. It is also the case that identical twins often have affinity towards similar occupations. Eh, what is being carried to your offspring is your DNA, not your achievements. Basically meaning if you're naturally big and strong you'll probably have big and strong children. But if you're naturally small and weak, your children will be small and weak regardless of the fact how much time you spend at the gym. Now, both you and your children can go to the gym more frequently than other people and end up being big and strong, because your body adapts to the stimuli induced upon it. But in no way can those stimuli be carried on to your offspring. It's like loosing an arm in a war and then having your child born without an arm. It means that if we continually kill stupid people and have smart people have many children ultimately human race should become smarter. If you're not smart but try really hard you can reach the level of smarter but more lazy people, but your children will not benfit much from it except for the social aspect of being raised in a better environment.

thanks, though you didn't need to elaborate on all of it
the main thing i had a problem with was your first "no", you expanded on it enough in the second paragraph

i should have probably phrased my original main question better.

"we can not influence our DNA without external chemicals" or something to that effect would have summed it up, and it is implied in your post, so good enough for me

thanks again

___________________
People who own my ass: Citric Acid, Boomer187, Tribu, Sand Leaper,
Jackson, venomX, jamie, Renegade, Konjin, Akridrot, Miss Bliss.
Psy-T - Down The Rabbit Hole (400minute long acid set)