[hinckley buzzard]

This idea is almost Lamarckian, although Darwin suggested that it may be a factor. Lamarck theorized that environmental stresses could alter genetic transmission as a dynamic in evolution.

[muawiyah]

Lamarck didn't know much about DNA (and neither did anyone else at the time) but he did suspect what we now call "epigenetics".

Kind of like the fellow who'd figured out Quarks before there was a good working model of what an atom was like. We don't right off hand know his name.

[PapaBear3625]

This idea is almost Lamarckian, although Darwin suggested that it may be a factor. Lamarck theorized that environmental stresses could alter genetic transmission as a dynamic in evolution.

If you consider DNA as the "software", then epigenetic factors could be considered "user settings". I would not be surprised to find that there is some currently-unknown mechanism for transmitting such settings along with the DNA.