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> Even the average person today would have been considered a genius compared to someone born in 1919 If you didn't already suspect that IQ is a load of crap, t

by geowwy 7y ago

> Even the average person today would have been considered a genius compared to someone born in 1919 If you didn't already suspect that IQ is a load of crap, this sentence should tip you off. Can you really imagine a 100 IQ person being haled as a genius 100 years ago?

lsd5you 7y ago
IQ being 'a load of crap' doesn't follow from some journalists glib (and incorrect) claim. What is more, if it were true and the IQ differences were such that todays average measured as a genius then, if you were to witness someone ace the test, you could reasonably hail them a genius at least in the colloquial sense.
- 0x8BADF00D 7y ago
  IQ simply measures general intelligence. How intelligence is measured when there is artificial general intelligence will be interesting.
flukus 7y ago
The Flynn Effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect) is well known and a 100 IQ person toady may well have been considered as a genius by a significant number of people back then: > Ulric Neisser estimated that using the IQ values of 1997, the average IQ of the United States in 1932, according to the first Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales standardization sample, was 80. Neisser states that "Hardly any of them would have scored 'very superior', but nearly one-quarter would have appeared to be 'deficient.'" He also wrote that "Test scores are certainly going up all over the world, but whether intelligence itself has risen remains controversial." Is it really that hard to imagine modern nutrition, abundance and education has produced smarter people compared to a group that ate bread and dripping for dinner and left school at 14 and had an education even more focused on rote memorization?
onion2k 7y ago
I wonder if this is a case of people abusing the word 'genius' more than a statement about the average IQ. When we think of a genius from the past it's usually someone like Einstein or Feynman. When people use the word today it's more often someone like Zuckerberg or TV celebrity.

by geowwy 7y ago

lsd5you 7y ago

IQ being 'a load of crap' doesn't follow from some journalists glib (and incorrect) claim. What is more, if it were true and the IQ differences were such that todays average measured as a genius then, if you were to witness someone ace the test, you could reasonably hail them a genius at least in the colloquial sense.

0x8BADF00D 7y ago
IQ simply measures general intelligence. How intelligence is measured when there is artificial general intelligence will be interesting.

flukus 7y ago

The Flynn Effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect) is well known and a 100 IQ person toady may well have been considered as a genius by a significant number of people back then: > Ulric Neisser estimated that using the IQ values of 1997, the average IQ of the United States in 1932, according to the first Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales standardization sample, was 80. Neisser states that "Hardly any of them would have scored 'very superior', but nearly one-quarter would have appeared to be 'deficient.'" He also wrote that "Test scores are certainly going up all over the world, but whether intelligence itself has risen remains controversial." Is it really that hard to imagine modern nutrition, abundance and education has produced smarter people compared to a group that ate bread and dripping for dinner and left school at 14 and had an education even more focused on rote memorization?

onion2k 7y ago

I wonder if this is a case of people abusing the word 'genius' more than a statement about the average IQ. When we think of a genius from the past it's usually someone like Einstein or Feynman. When people use the word today it's more often someone like Zuckerberg or TV celebrity.