[Jensson]

> There is just no reason to believe that we are born with some insanely big library of knowledge, and it sounds completely impossible. How would it be stored, and how would we even evolve it?

We do have that, ever felt fear of heights? That isn't learned, we are born with it. Same with fear of small moving objects like spiders or snakes.

Such things are learned/stored very different from memories, but its certainly there and we can see animals also have those. Like cats gets very scared of objects that are long and appear suddenly, like a cucumber, since their genetic instincts thinks its a snake.

[throwup238]

> Like cats gets very scared of objects that are long and appear suddenly, like a cucumber, since their genetic instincts thinks its a snake.

After having raised four dozen kittens that a couple of feral sisters gave birth to in my garage, I’m certain that is nonsense. It’s an internet meme that became urban legend.

I don’t think they have ever even reacted to a cucumber, and I have run many experiments because my childhood cat loved cucumbers (we’d have to guard the basket of cucumbers after harvest, otherwise she’d bite every single one of them… just once).

[Nopoint2]

Of course it is learned, and fear is triggered by anything unfamiliar, that causes a high reconstruction error. Because it means you don't understand it, and it could be dangerous. We are just not used to encoding anything so deep below the eye level, and it freaks us out.

[suddenlybananas]

Yeah that's why people are terrified by white noise.

[Jensson]

Do you really think every single ant is learning all that on its own? And if ants can store that in their DNA, why don't you think other animals can? DNA works just fine as generic information storage, there are obviously a ton of behaviors and information encoded there from hundreds of millions of years of survival of the fittest.