News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Natalie Portman - Scientist by roel_v on Tuesday March 01, 2011 @01:16PM (#2276497)
Well, yes, intelligence needs to be trained, shaped, refined. But are you saying that there is no difference between humans when it comes to their maximum potential? I think everybody has an 'intelligence ceiling', and that ceiling can only be asymptotically approaches by study, hard work, circumstances etc. But that doesn't take away from the (imo) fact that there is a ceiling and that some people, no matter what they do, will never achieve the level some others do.
Re:Natalie Portman - Scientist by danssig on Wednesday March 02, 2011 @04:52AM (#2279022)
I think the issue here is that you're saying "if person A is good at math person B may never be able to get as good at math". This I would agree with, but I think person B might be able to get better in some area than person A ever could.

Equal in that sense, not identical.

Re:Natalie Portman - Scientist by roel_v on Wednesday March 02, 2011 @04:28PM (#2281411)
Not necessarily. I don't see a reason why person B would have to have something he's better at than A, except maybe statistical - there are millions of things a person can be good at, so the chances he's worse than the other in all things are very small.

But then still, it's entirely possible that person A is better at many more things than person B. So 'equal' as in 'A and B are the best in an equal amount of things', I don't see any reason why it would be so.