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Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by panic on Saturday May 09, 2015 @02:02AM (#9515683)
Intelligence (at least as measured by an IQ test) isn't distributed as a bell curve. Bell curves always include negative values, and intelligence can't be negative.
Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by thaumasiotes on Saturday May 09, 2015 @02:10AM (#9515695)
> intelligence can't be negative

Asserted without proof. To show this, you'd need to interpret intelligence as something that physically couldn't be negative. I feel safe in saying you haven't done that.

In particular, "intelligence (as measured by an IQ test)" can easily be negative, in the sense of yielding a negative IQ score. It would have to be an unrealistically long test, and you'd need way more people than exist in the world, but those problems apply to the tails of actual normal curves too.

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by rawnlq on Saturday May 09, 2015 @02:21AM (#9515707)
I am really impressed by wolfram alpha's ability to parse my butchered syntax: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=probability+that+gauss...

Probability of finding someone with an IQ (as defined as normal distribution with mean 100 and std 15) less than 0 is 1.30839×10^-11

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by static_noise on Saturday May 09, 2015 @03:56AM (#9515824)
Technically you are correct - the best kind of correct.

"The distribution of the measured IQ very closely follows a bell curve." would have been the correct way to formulate.

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by madez on Saturday May 09, 2015 @07:58AM (#9516132)
To be technically correct is the only way for a statement to be correct.

If it's "non-technically correct" it is ill-frased.

This debates started by people stating wrong things but still wanting others to understand them.

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by mreiland on Saturday May 09, 2015 @11:37AM (#9516672)
While mathematics has for the most part been built up using 2-valued logic, that isn't how humans perceive the world, which is why someone will say something like "you are technically correct", or they'll say "technically that's, but...".
Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by madez on Saturday May 09, 2015 @01:02PM (#9516921)
It is true that binary logic is not the ultimate logic. However, "technically correct" vs "correct" is not a debate of whether one value of true is enough.

The word "technically" is used with "correct" as a rhetoric tool. It seems like they are attacking the truthness of the statement, but in fact they are trying to put the statement into a bigger context. So many people misuse it as such that some even understand it as an attack of the truthness of the statement.

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by mreiland on Saturday May 09, 2015 @05:08PM (#9517690)
> So many people misuse it as such that some even understand it as an attack of the truthness of the statement.

No, they use it as a device to point out that there is more context around the discussion than whether or not something is true or false (hence my point about 2-valued logic).

I could say race is defined by genetics, and while that's technically correct, it adds nothing to a discussion about race relations.

This is the context in which people use this term.

When people say things like "you're technically correct, the best kind of correct", it's a tongue in cheek way of pointing out the observation is true, but lacks contextual information in order to be useful. This is why it tends to be a joke, in general everyone implicitly understands this.

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by madez on Saturday May 09, 2015 @06:17PM (#9517902)

    I could say race is defined by genetics, and while that's technically
    correct, it adds nothing to a discussion about race relations.
Whether a statement does or does not add to a discussion is an independent to whether it's true or not.

Genetics define physical race. That is technically correct, hence it's plain correct and it's true.

If a statement doesn't add to a discussion, then it's misusing of language to say that the statement is "technically correct" instead of clearly saying that the statement is not relevant.

It could be conventional to use "technically correct" to mean "true but important context is missing", so everybody understood it. Some define a language to be correct the way it is used commonly. However, I don't agree and I'd still consider it misusing language.

If context is missing, then why talking about the correctness instead of supplying missing context?

People using "technically correct" like you described indirectly devalue correctness. That follows the lines of valuing more the consequences of a statement than whether it's true or not.

I'd rather see the world like it is than how I'd like it to be. Therefore, correctness is very important to me and I think it shouldn't be subtly devalued.

How about you?

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by mreiland on Saturday May 09, 2015 @10:17PM (#9518505)
you must be fun at parties.

You'll outgrow that attitude eventually, you should revisit that last post when you do.

Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by hackinthebochs on Saturday May 09, 2015 @03:05AM (#9515759)
The bell curve distribution is a model. That our metric doesn't include negative values does not contradict its effectiveness. Also someone downstream calculated the probability of seeing a negative value for a normal distribution with 100 mean and 15 sd, the probability is about 1 in 100 billion. And so we don't expect the bell curve model to break down until we reach a population size on the order of 100 billion.
Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by myg204 on Saturday May 09, 2015 @07:17AM (#9516066)
Right. Also, in theory, intelligence (or height) can be infinite it if is said it follows a bell curve, but that's sort of impossible too.
Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by leni536 on Saturday May 09, 2015 @12:52PM (#9516898)
IQ is defined to be distributed as a bell curve. IQ below 0 is just extremely improbable.
Re:On Mathematical Intelligence and How It Grows by cwhy on Sunday May 10, 2015 @01:09AM (#9518908)
It depends, Beta(3,3) is also bell-shaped.