4 ms·

I don't agree with the premise of the article. The idea that there are "better" versions of each intelligence-influencing allele - and that they simply linearl

I don't agree with the premise of the article. The idea that there are "better" versions of each intelligence-influencing allele - and that they simply linearly combine - seems ludicrous to me. It is equally plausible (and to my mind much more likely) that the many parameters influencing intelligence are linked in complex ways with no simple global optimum in sight.

loup-vaillant 11y ago
I've read that many gifted children are utterly unfit for normal school. Some are even prone to killing themselves if not taken care of properly. Assuming we can indeed select for gifted embryos, and do so, the consequences are going to be… interesting.
- xyzzy123 11y ago
  I'm a bit wary of "giftedness" in intelligence discussions... I think the author's argument is very weak, analogous to: "Scientists have identified thousands of parameters influencing the efficiency of petrol-powered cars. Each parameter seems to influence the outcome by a small amount. If we simply chose the best value for each parameter, I predict that we could see cars with efficiency in the range of 500 miles per gallon". A related argument (I think the one you are making) is that generally optimising one thing is going to trade off other things. So going all-in on fuel efficiency might impact crash resistance, for example. The author's argument for general intelligence might be true if the basic architecture of our brains has a lot of room for improvement. This might be true, but it seems that evolution should have already exploited any low-hanging fruit. This whole thing reminds me of the "humans only use 10% of their brains" flavour of reasoning.
- dikdik 11y ago
  But what if normal school becomes what used to be a gifted school. if "gifted" is normalized, will these children still feel alienated and be "unfit" for school?

4 ms·

I don't agree with the premise of the article. The idea that there are "better" versions of each intelligence-influencing allele - and that they simply linearl

by xyzzy123 11y ago

loup-vaillant 11y ago
I've read that many gifted children are utterly unfit for normal school. Some are even prone to killing themselves if not taken care of properly. Assuming we can indeed select for gifted embryos, and do so, the consequences are going to be… interesting.
- xyzzy123 11y ago
  I'm a bit wary of "giftedness" in intelligence discussions... I think the author's argument is very weak, analogous to: "Scientists have identified thousands of parameters influencing the efficiency of petrol-powered cars. Each parameter seems to influence the outcome by a small amount. If we simply chose the best value for each parameter, I predict that we could see cars with efficiency in the range of 500 miles per gallon". A related argument (I think the one you are making) is that generally optimising one thing is going to trade off other things. So going all-in on fuel efficiency might impact crash resistance, for example. The author's argument for general intelligence might be true if the basic architecture of our brains has a lot of room for improvement. This might be true, but it seems that evolution should have already exploited any low-hanging fruit. This whole thing reminds me of the "humans only use 10% of their brains" flavour of reasoning.
- dikdik 11y ago
  But what if normal school becomes what used to be a gifted school. if "gifted" is normalized, will these children still feel alienated and be "unfit" for school?