[tomxor]

Some parts are copiable, but not the more abstract things like the human intellect, for lack of a better word.

We are not even born with what you might consider basic mental faculties, for example it might seem absurd, but we have to learn to see... We are born with the "hardware" for it, a visual cortex, an eye, all defined by our genes, but it's actually trained from birth, there is even a feedback loop that causes the retina to physically develop properly.

[immibis]

They raised some cats from birth in an environment with only vertically-oriented edges, none horizontal. Those cats could not see horizontally-oriented things. https://computervisionblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/cats-and...

Likewise, kittens with an eye patch over an eye in the same time period remain blind in that eye forever.

[tomxor]

Wow, that's a horrific way of proving that theory.

[BriggyDwiggs42]

Geez poor kitties, but that is interesting.

[alexpotato]

Another example:

Children who were "raised in the wild" or locked in a room by themselves have shown to be incapable of learning full human language.

The working theory is that our brains can only learn certain skills at certain times of brain development/ages.

[deepfriedchokes]

We should also consider the effects of trauma on those brains. If you’ve ever spent time around people with extreme trauma they are very much in their own heads and can’t focus outside themselves long enough to focus enough to learn anything. It definitely impacts intellectual capacity. Humans are social animals and anyone raised without proper socializing and intimacy and nurturing will inevitably end up traumatized.