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I have met too many people who truly believe intelligence is heritable. These people also believe they're smarter and better than 95% of the population. Most o

I have met too many people who truly believe intelligence is heritable. These people also believe they're smarter and better than 95% of the population. Most of these people are the self-described entrepreneurial types and engineers. What I am saying is you may have opened the floodgates for a horrifying debate where pseudo-eugenicists come out of the woodwork.

jensen123 11y ago
If intelligence is not heritable, then sometimes chimpanzees will have children with an IQ of 170, whereas often humans will have children that are as dumb as chimps, right?
- analog31 11y ago
  In partial support of your point, I haven't met a chimp with an IQ of 170. ;-)
orangecat 11y ago
I have met too many people who truly believe intelligence is heritable. For example, almost everyone who has studied the subject? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ
phamilton 11y ago
Is intelligence not heritable? I've (naively perhaps) never considered the possibility that my children didn't inherit various characteristics that influence their critical thinking ability. In fact, it's frequently stated by family and friends that my son thinks like I did when I was his age.
AlisdairO 11y ago
All our best evidence suggests that IQ is heritable. It's not the only factor, but genetic background has a substantial impact.
douche 11y ago
I don't understand why human beings should follow any different rules of genetics and heritability than any other species. We may not fully understand all of the genetic mechanisms of intelligence, but neither did our ancestors when they started selectively breeding dogs or pigs or goats to emphasize certain traits.
newjersey 11y ago
I strongly believe not everyone should have children[footnote]. I also strongly believe that we should not provide incentives (and rather dis incentivize) people from having too many children. I think the one child policy is a great idea. The society at large will subsidize the first (one or two at most) child for any person. Anything beyond that and the parents must be prepared to meet the financial obligation themselves. (And it costs a lot to raise a child, even when you take away the cost of health care with universal health care). I don't think this stance is unreasonable at all. It is surely unpopular though. [footnote] People should decide for themselves if they are fit to be parent though. We have that choice now and we should always have this choice.
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  I think the one child policy is a great idea. How do you deal with those who defy it, deliberately or otherwise?
  - newjersey 11y ago
    They don't get any subsidy. Possibly taxes, garnished wages and so on. This is not a completely fleshed out idea. How do we deal with twins, triplets and so on?
    - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
      What subsidy? When you mentioned "society at large," I was assuming some hypothetical communal or kinship arrangements. You should be more clear. The second idea is vile and destructive. Someone elects to have more than one child, and you come in storming to deduct from their payrolls and tax their income as if you deliberately want to wage a war of attrition against the parents' standard of living for raising a child.
      - newjersey 11y ago
        > What subsidy? That is the reason for this whole exercise. We'd create a subsidy to encourage more people to have a first child or first two children. I acknowledge that society needs children. I just think that we're better off if 80% of people have one kid vs 10% of the people have eight kids or something. If you want more children, you must pull your own weight. I did say there has to be some kind of exemption for natural twins and so on.

jensen123 11y ago

If intelligence is not heritable, then sometimes chimpanzees will have children with an IQ of 170, whereas often humans will have children that are as dumb as chimps, right?

analog31 11y ago
In partial support of your point, I haven't met a chimp with an IQ of 170. ;-)

orangecat 11y ago

I have met too many people who truly believe intelligence is heritable. For example, almost everyone who has studied the subject? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ

phamilton 11y ago

Is intelligence not heritable? I've (naively perhaps) never considered the possibility that my children didn't inherit various characteristics that influence their critical thinking ability. In fact, it's frequently stated by family and friends that my son thinks like I did when I was his age.

AlisdairO 11y ago

All our best evidence suggests that IQ is heritable. It's not the only factor, but genetic background has a substantial impact.

douche 11y ago

I don't understand why human beings should follow any different rules of genetics and heritability than any other species. We may not fully understand all of the genetic mechanisms of intelligence, but neither did our ancestors when they started selectively breeding dogs or pigs or goats to emphasize certain traits.

newjersey 11y ago

I strongly believe not everyone should have children[footnote]. I also strongly believe that we should not provide incentives (and rather dis incentivize) people from having too many children. I think the one child policy is a great idea. The society at large will subsidize the first (one or two at most) child for any person. Anything beyond that and the parents must be prepared to meet the financial obligation themselves. (And it costs a lot to raise a child, even when you take away the cost of health care with universal health care). I don't think this stance is unreasonable at all. It is surely unpopular though. [footnote] People should decide for themselves if they are fit to be parent though. We have that choice now and we should always have this choice.

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
I think the one child policy is a great idea. How do you deal with those who defy it, deliberately or otherwise?
- newjersey 11y ago
  They don't get any subsidy. Possibly taxes, garnished wages and so on. This is not a completely fleshed out idea. How do we deal with twins, triplets and so on?
  - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
    What subsidy? When you mentioned "society at large," I was assuming some hypothetical communal or kinship arrangements. You should be more clear. The second idea is vile and destructive. Someone elects to have more than one child, and you come in storming to deduct from their payrolls and tax their income as if you deliberately want to wage a war of attrition against the parents' standard of living for raising a child.
    - newjersey 11y ago
      > What subsidy? That is the reason for this whole exercise. We'd create a subsidy to encourage more people to have a first child or first two children. I acknowledge that society needs children. I just think that we're better off if 80% of people have one kid vs 10% of the people have eight kids or something. If you want more children, you must pull your own weight. I did say there has to be some kind of exemption for natural twins and so on.