A special form of human heredity

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   The term "heredity" has deep historical roots. Some of the earliest attempts to explain the mechanisms of inheritance were made by ancient scholars such as Theophrastus, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Aeschylus, and others. However, it was not until over 2,000 years later that Gregor Johann Mendel first proposed the existence of discrete inheritable units. This laid the groundwork for the modern understanding of genetics and heredity. Thus, the term "heredity" originally had a broader meaning, as it predated the discovery of the genetic mechanism.

   Heredity is the transmission of traits from parents to offspring. It is widely known that heredity is passed down genetically. The genotype, in combination with environmental influences, forms the phenotype of an organism. However, in addition to the generally accepted view, it is important to recognize a separate path – human heredity also includes upbringing. This mechanism is also found in species with sufficiently developed brains, though to a significantly lesser extent. The qualitative level is characterized by the importance of distinguishing traits within a species, with the greatest significance of differences observed in the process of evolution. Thus, humans became the first species among animals whose educational inheritance surpassed genetic inheritance in importance. This is due to the fact that the evolution of the species during anthropogenesis was increasingly determined by social and technological processes, rather than by genetic transformations.

   The more developed a species is, the greater the role of upbringing in heredity. The genetic factor remains at the same level, but the contribution of the educational factor increases. Genetic changes are individual in nature, highly dependent on the circumstances of the manifestation of the trait, often represent defects and are difficult to solidify. Traits of the educational type have a far superior ability to be passed on to offspring, are easily adjusted through interaction with the environment, and can be horizontally transferred within the population. At the stage of evolution where the educational factor plays a decisive role in the development of skills for self-expression, the distinguishing interspecies genetic traits are only general individual tendencies.

   In human history, there has been a strong focus on genetics, which accounts for minor external differences that allow one population to be distinguished from another – such as skin color, hair texture, eye shape, etc. However, these differences are purely subjective. In human evolution, genetic heredity has long ceased to play any role in comparison to educational heredity.

   The acquisition of skills, knowledge, abilities, as well as behavioral, adaptive, and other traits by an individual is achieved through interaction with other members of the population. In this way, part of the social environment passes certain traits to the offspring, with only some of them coming from the parents. A growing individual may not even meet their parents or may have very limited contact with them.

   During human evolution, another branch of heredity transmission within species diversity emerged – external carriers of information, including interactions with the anthropogenic environment. This form of species inheritance mediates the evolution of the species to an even greater extent, but it is essentially a form of educational heredity.

   Just as with genomic heredity, educational heredity can be divided into three types: selective, where traits are passed from a carrier; mixed, where the properties of different carriers combine; and combinative, associated with the appearance of new traits.

   The transmission of traits to offspring through external carriers of information is significant because it allows society to evolve on a qualitatively new level by accumulating the best achievements (the best adaptations) of the species in a more accessible form for each individual. The recording, storage, and transfer of information have advanced with the development of writing, printing, and the internet. At the same time, the level of education in the population has risen, especially in terms of the quantity and quality of individuals driving the advancement of science and technology. Such individuals are particularly important for social evolution. From an evolutionary perspective, the general population serves as a source for their emergence and self-realization. However, with increased labor productivity, the opportunities for self-realization for each person significantly expand.

   The development of artificial intelligence will lead to a rapid increase in the potential for self-realization, both in qualitative and quantitative terms, propelling us once again to the next stage of a qualitatively new evolution of the species!