Re:Questions
by stef25 on Monday October 01, 2018 @05:01AM
(#18110995)
I guess you've heard of The Bell Curve and the related controversy (check Sam Harris podcast with Charles Murray)?
Fwiw I don't think you're necessarily wrong about intelligence but from what I remember The Gene (Siddhartha Mukherjee) does have a few passages contradicting this theory. Also by questioning the validity of IQ tests.
Could it also not be that jews are just more motivated to get in to STEM fields and perform well, for cultural reasons or otherwise?
Similarly, Malcolm Gladwell mentions a theory about why "Asians are smarter" which according to him may be related to hard and smart work leading to bigger rice harvests, and other factors (see here https://www.cs.unh.edu/~sbhatia/outliers/outliers.pdf).
While I have zero interest in the cultural implications and all the moral panics surrounding these issues, I don't think intelligence being mostly down to genetics is a proven fact. I find it gets extremely complicated very quickly.
Genes are hugely influenced by their environmental (cultural) triggers and those should not be ignored.
Fwiw I don't think you're necessarily wrong about intelligence but from what I remember The Gene (Siddhartha Mukherjee) does have a few passages contradicting this theory. Also by questioning the validity of IQ tests.
Could it also not be that jews are just more motivated to get in to STEM fields and perform well, for cultural reasons or otherwise?
Similarly, Malcolm Gladwell mentions a theory about why "Asians are smarter" which according to him may be related to hard and smart work leading to bigger rice harvests, and other factors (see here https://www.cs.unh.edu/~sbhatia/outliers/outliers.pdf).
While I have zero interest in the cultural implications and all the moral panics surrounding these issues, I don't think intelligence being mostly down to genetics is a proven fact. I find it gets extremely complicated very quickly.
Genes are hugely influenced by their environmental (cultural) triggers and those should not be ignored.