Does DNA have THAT ROBUST a data capacity in gigabytes or terabytes or whatever terms?
And:
What did you stuff the salmon with?
Only on FR.
I can't answer the second question, but I'll have a go at the first. To a first approximation, DNA is a read-only memory. Apart from random mutations, your DNA remains the same from the moment of your conception till the day you die. You can't create a giraffe by successively stretching the necks of generations of proto-giraffes. You create a giraffe by creating an environment with tall trees. The environment selects for survival and reproduction those proto-giraffes who happen to have longer necks, due to how their parent's DNA combined, to DNA transforming viruses, or to random mutations from cosmic rays, for example.
DNA holds a lot of information but it doesn't import it from the environment. What the environment does determine, however, is how the DNA generates the proteins from which a given cell is constructed. Though each cell in your body has the same DNA, the cell is created by RNA expression, basically reading selected segments of the DNA to create the proteins out of which the cell is built. Which proteins are created depends on the microenvironment of the DNA, which is determined by the surrounding chemical/hormonal soup. A proto-cell surrounded by a lot of liver cells will generate the proteins that turn it into a liver cell. (I still don't know how the first liver cell decides to be a liver cell, or how muscles cells grow into all the different fibers and fascia and attachments.)
The state of your body records a sort of history of the micro-environment that each cell was in at any point in the development of your body. But there' s not enough information recorded to show, for example, that on a given day in 1992 you exercised on a treadmill machine for 20 minutes at 4 MPH.
The mind, however, is a different story. Your mind records your entire life experience in remarkable detail. (Whether you can find a specific memory is another question.) No one has identified any important limits on what the brain can capture and store -- no human has ever "run out of storage space".
The recordings that the mind makes are not made by changing DNA but by expressing proteins to make connections between different brain cells. The large numbers of brain cells and the large numbers of possible connections between adjacent and nearby brain cells mean that memory capacity is very large.
“...no human has ever “run out of storage space”.”
Speak for yourself. :^)
1. As the Bible hints at (as a man thinks in his heart, so is he--as well as Scriptures about what we say etc) research has demonstrated that what we THINK about a LOT and/or what we SAY a lot--changes even our DNA. I don't know in what ways but they are more or less lasting changes.
2. There are ... what's the word ... epigenetic ??? changes. i.e. the expression of this or that gene or set of genes CAN BE AND ROUTINELY IS changed by the internal/external environmental experiences, conditions.
Maybe some micro-biologists by profession will chime in on this topic.
Dang it AZLiberty. When I saw Jocko’s post I was thinking the exact thing you posted, and not in a #METOO manner. Very well said. The mind, sees all, remembers all, recalls some or none depending upon age, culpability, or state of intoxication.