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Inheritance Extended and Distributed: Evolutionary Foundations of Memory Systems
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A
DOI：10.1007/s12304-025-09626-w.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
The article examines biological, evolutionary and biosemiotic precursors of distributed, supraindividual, and 'transitive' memory. Genetic and epigenetic inheritance, the origin of instincts, and the nature of immunity are conceptualised as specific (rudimentary) forms of memory with similar features to neurologically based individual and social memory. Some researchers hypothesise that instincts, as a kind of 'unconscious memory', may originate through learning and epigenetic inheritance. The article provides examples of specific instincts (e.g., honeybee dance language or the seasonal migration of butterflies) whose acquisition requires social learning, transgenerational and 'shared' memory (genetic or epigenetic) and distributed actions. The research integrates theories of ecological inheritance and ecosemiotics with concepts of distributed, semiotically scaffolded and directed evolution. It posits that 'soft inheritance' (epigenetic, behavioural, cultural, symbolic) and the sign systems connected with it allows organisms to sidestep the slowly changing genetic constraints of 'hard inheritance', thereby providing a foundation for cumulative, distributed, and extended social development. Both 'hard' and 'soft' inheritance systems are re-examined in the article as memory systems with supraindividual, 'transitive' and wave-like characteristics. Additionally, the study addresses methodological and theoretical debates concerning the nature of memory: whether it is a structure or process, storage or action, code or semiosis. As a resolution to memory's antinomies, the article proposes principles of complementarity and nonlocality, borrowed from physics.
Keywords:
Distributed Memory
Transitive Memory
Non-Genetic Inheritance
Epigenetics
Ecosemiotics
The Origin of Instincts
Semiotic Scaffolding
Journal
B
IF:
1.9
Papers:
20
Citations:
0
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