| ▲ | jncfhnb 4 days ago |
| Human babies physically cannot walk. It’s not merely a knowledge check. Pretrained brain modules aren’t the most surprising thing. Humans have plenty of pre trained behaviors, some of which kick in a while after birth. |
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| ▲ | DFHippie 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| > Human babies physically cannot walk. It’s not merely a knowledge check. They physically cannot walk, but they also don't know how to. We know this because they need to practice and acquire skill. If they are deprived of opportunity to learn but their body continues to mature, their mature body does not give them the mature skill. |
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| ▲ | jncfhnb 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It may be that humans practice things, but they’re still mostly pretrained capabilities that activate. Most of walking and balance is subconscious and not “learned” via experience. We have dedicated neural hardware for this. Language processing is another example. There’s dedicated neural hardware designed for this specific task. | |
| ▲ | Retric 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Practice itself is an instinctual behavior. Evolution isn’t limited to direct methods, as long as it works that’s enough. | |
| ▲ | mekoka 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Are you saying that a human left to their own devices would not eventually walk? That walking erect is mimicry? | | |
| ▲ | jncfhnb 4 days ago | parent [-] | | I think they’re saying a human that was not able to practice walking would not be able to walk even if their muscles were fine; like an inverted Neo waking up from the matrix. It’s hard to imagine it being possible to test but I think they’re wrong. | | |
| ▲ | mekoka 4 days ago | parent [-] | | That's why I'm asking to clarify what they meant. Because from observing how quickly other animals (including other apes) acquire motor skills from birth, I don't see why we should attribute walking to a practiced skill for human infants, rather than a physical sturdying of their body to sustain the activity. |
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| ▲ | MisterBastahrd 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I never crawled. My parents were worried, they went to doctors who assured them that I was mostly alright, and then one day, I got up and started walking. I saw the exact same behavior with my ex-gf's sister's son, who we took in after he was in foster care from birth. The child had clearly not been engaged with properly... the back of his head was bald because he was always on his back in a cramped bassinette and at 11 months he hadn't even learned to turn over. Within 3 months of being with us, he was walking. |
