Is Genetic Memory Real?
The discovery of DNA is one of the great discoveries of the 20th century. As we learn more, it will continue to increase in importance and could lead to a whole new wave of medical breakthroughs. It is also likely it will lead to all sorts of other innovations that we can’t imagine.
Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia may have discovered one of the unanticipated qualities of DNA. Their research demonstrates the possibility that memory can be communicated via genes from parent to child. During the tests they learned that that mice can pass on learned information about traumatic or stressful experiences. Exactly how information is transmitted from the parent’s brain into DNA is unknown. It is also unknown how such information can be stored in DNA at all.
The researchers conditioned the first generation of mice to fear a certain smell: cherry blossoms. This can be done by inflicting some stress or pain to the mice whenever they are exposed to the smell. This was done before conception of the next generation. The mice were then allowed the breed. The second and third generation of mice from those parents developed a sensitivity and fear of the smell of cherry blossom without any conditioning.
These findings raise all sorts of questions. Are humans also capable of inheriting memories from their parents? What about memories from multiple generations all the way back to prehistoric times? There is also questions about the manner of the memories. Is it only traumatic experiences and fears? Can we inherit intellectual or spiritual experiences?
In Frank Herbert’s Dune, the Bene Gesserit are a sisterhood that can access the memories of their female ancestors, through the use of the spice. It is called Other Memory. Muad’Dib is able to search through the memories of his ancestors to learn the truth of things. His son Leto, who becomes God Emperor, is able to inherit memories of billions of ancestors. Herbert’s idea that memory, sometimes specific experiences, could be passed on was considered a sort of mystical element to the Dune Chronicles and not actual science. This research suggests their could be a speck of truth to it.
There are also social implications. If we can inherit more from our parents than just physiological characteristics, society would inevitably revisit old ideas like those of nobility, eugenics, and the importance of tribal and national identity. The egalitarian melting pot and open immigration policies would also be reexamined. We could find ourselves having discussions in the future that many were having back in the 1930s.
It was not long ago that people believed that lineage was paramount in evaluating an individual. Even before the discovery of DNA, people believed that an individual is largely comprised of who their parents were. If you were descended from wealthy, intelligent, upstanding citizens you were likely to become the same. If you were born of poor, uneducated and criminal parents, you would end up the same. Parents often wanted to know the lineage of prospective husbands and wives for their children. Even if genetic memory is limited to traumatic events, it will be easy for people to take an unscientific approach and begin resurrecting old ideas about people being from “good stock” or “blue bloods.”
There is also the danger of returning to 1930s thinking in terms of race. In the US and Europe, scholars and scientists were embracing the idea of eugenics, that to preserve quality traits in individuals, blood lines needed to be controlled and purified. Sterilizations were conducted in the US and Europe to prevent the “feeble-minded” from breeding and passing on bad genes to future generations. It was a way of controlling evolution with people deciding what those preferred traits were. Nazi Germany took the idea to the extreme, creating a mythical Aryan bloodline and a desire to protect it at all costs from Jews, Slavs, and other undesirables. Non-Aryan’s were considered almost sub-human. If humanity and the world were to progress, the Aryan and races equal in strength had to rule and carry on.
This wasn’t just a Nazi idea. Plenty of American progressives held the same ideal. The difference was American eugenicists weren’t homicidal; instead they preferred sterilization. Americans also didn’t believe in Aryan or any kind of ancient or mythical bloodline. They wanted to protect specific traits, not people. Course, those desired traits were typically those of the upper class. When people make decisions, they are rarely objective or based on science. Inevitably their biases and prejudices will find their way into these decisions.
Eventually geneticist proved our 1930s notions of eugenics and desired traits were not based on scientific fact but cultural stereotypes, or just flat racism. We no longer sterilize people by force, although many still encourage people to get sterilized or abort voluntarily. Most believe there is nothing wrong with mixing races, ethnicities, nationalities, or any other combination of cultural bloodlines. In fact, we’ve learned that a lack of mixing can lead to genetic disorders. At the same time we learned that there are a few genetic disorders that are directly inheritable, and therefore we encourage parents who possess the gene to be aware that it may pass to their children.
Memories are different. If we extend the idea of inherited memory to feelings and thoughts, we start asking ourselves if a serial killer or psychopath can pass on those feelings and memories to their children. What about pedophiles and other sexual predators? What about sociopaths? Should we consider limiting the reproductive rights of such people? In some ways we already do, through incarceration without conjugal visits. To go a step farther would vest incredible new powers in the criminal justice system.
What about positive memories and thoughts? Perhaps we should encourage the great people of our time to reproduce as much as possible and pass along their genetic memories, in hopes of producing more Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mother Theresas, Stephen Hawkings, Martin Luther Kings, Isaac Asimovs, or Angelina Jolies. Individuals will no longer be evaluated on individual merit (to the extent they are today). We might even see college admission decisions be more heavily influenced by genetics, parentage and ancestry.
There is a basic reality we need to acknowledge before going off the deep end. We do not possess specific memories from our parents. I don’t have any memories of a previous life, whether it is my Dad or another one of my ancestors. Perhaps I inherited a fear of heights or spiders from them. Maybe, I am a bit on the anti-social side because of some previous experience, or maybe I am more passive than normal because of an ancient memory rather than my own experiences and biological makeup. There’s no way to know definitively.
If genetic memory exists and does influence humans, it is hard to see it as a major factor in our personalities. Most of what makes a person unique can be traced down to their own experiences and biology. Whatever role genetic memory plays, it is minor. Psychology, although not a “hard” science, has been able to produce compelling evidence and arguments of our individuality separate from our ancestry.
What if certain people have the ability to directly access genetic memory? What if we all have the ability but don’t know how to do it? There might be a way to access them, the way Muad’Dib did. In Dune,the Bene Gesserit and Muad’Dib are the only ones that can access Other Memory. Maybe in the future some will learn to access Other Memory.
Like everything else in science, it can be used to benefit humanity or for sinister purposes. Genetic memory carries with it a dark past of eugenics, compulsory sterilization, and genocide. We need to be careful and make sure we follow the science and not our own feelings and prejudices.
J
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