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Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by wincy on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @10:47AM (#30073101)
I mean in an interview Steven Pinker himself said there’s some things that we may not want to know, because if the parameter is wholly outside of human control it’d just contribute to racism and serve no useful purpose.

Also even if a study found parameters like that, it would never be published as the scientists career would absolutely be ruined.

Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by StingyJelly on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @11:13AM (#30073536)
Steven Pinker is right in this regard and so was Plato: … The doings of Cronus, and the sufferings which in turn his son inflicted upon him, even if they were true, ought certainly not to be lightly told to young and thoughtless persons … they are stories not to be repeated in our State …
Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by swamp40 on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @06:28PM (#30079634)
I had always thought Plato's argument was a reductio ad absurdum.

Looking at it now, it seems he WAS actually arguing FOR censoring stories of the bad behavior of the gods AND FOR censoring Homer's Odyssey.

Sigh.

Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by StingyJelly on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:34PM (#30107920)
He was, because those stories and ideas, if widely known, would threaten the state built on the narrative of virtuous gods and deviations from that narrative would lead to worse outcomes for everyone.

Our state is built on the narratives of democracy and equality thus while those factors have ability to undermine the narrative (as we've seen in not so distant history) we have to censor them and do the research behind closed doors, otherwise we risk more damage than any possible benefit.

Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by hunter2_ on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @12:24PM (#30074689)
That's a hell of a minefield, but I'll bite: might a few more generations in our increasingly globalized world (airplane travel, etc.) cause a "melting pot" where pedigree devolves into a homogenous blend that puts everyone on the same playing field? Hard to predict, and it's kind of scary (enjoying the cuisines and other cultural differences is quite special) but the equity would be fascinating.
Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by tick_tock_tick on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @05:27PM (#30079008)
It's going to take a lot of generations interracial couples are not particularly common.
Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by thematrixturtle on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @08:00PM (#30080332)
It will happen eventually though, because you can't unmix races. Which is why the Nazis, the KKK etc were/are so worked up about miscegenation, "the annihilation of the white race", etc.
Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by xyzzy123 on Wednesday January 26, 2022 @05:11AM (#30083712)
It's a question of rates, and culture. Not all countries and groups will be affected the same way.

Pretty verboten topic though and kind of unpalatable to think about, even if you don't particularly care about these sorts of demographic shifts.

Personally I like that the whole idea of "race" might become increasingly indeterminate and vague in liberal societies.

The phenomenon is real but for fully understandable reasons not much is published about it.

Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by oh_sigh on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @02:31PM (#30076784)
Isn't merely laying out the reasons why these parameters should never be studied/published fuel for racists?
Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by zozbot234 on Tuesday January 25, 2022 @05:43PM (#30079170)
There's no such thing as a parameter that's "wholly outside of human control" when you account for technological change. If there's an easy way of providing a free +1 INT, +1 WIS boost to a non-trivial chunk of the population via, let's say, tailored mRNA vaccine injections, I'd sure want to know about it!
Re:Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead po... by StingyJelly on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:52PM (#30108174)
Research is not even close to being restricted by those moral matters. There isn't an easy way today, not even close. If there was, it would also be a way to rid us of ugly debuffs ranging from genetic disorders through allergies to cancer.

mRNA can change gene expression locally for limited time, enough to train your immune sysem but not for permanent changes. CRISPR can make permanent changes but but for now only to few cells in vitro, not to whole organism. Even the Chineese CRISPR modified twins are mosaics of modified and unmodofied.