4 ms·

This is a belief just like God making man and animals on separate days. We have DNA and (partly) heritable traits just like tomatos and wheat. The only reason

This is a belief just like God making man and animals on separate days. We have DNA and (partly) heritable traits just like tomatos and wheat. The only reason modification (eg CRISPR) was done later in humans vs other organisms was due to ethical not technical reasons. We have easily obtained metrics that work as a proxy for intelligence like IQ, educational attainment, elite professional success, number of patents, publications etc. As for having many genes being responsible for a trait, Fisher showed in 1918 you can perform selection even if there were an infinite number of loci involved, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitesimal_model https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitesimal_model

justforyou 7y ago
>> educational attainment, elite professional success, number of patents, publications etc. None of these are meaningful measures of intelligence.
- sgt101 7y ago
  As anyone who has worked at a university or a research lab has said always!
- haihaibye 7y ago
  They correlate and as I said are 'easily measured.. proxies for intelligence' You can't just sequence people who have accomplished great things and are widely recognised as geniuses as there aren't enough of then and they're busy. We need huge sample sizes. Ideally, you'd sequence a million people and have them sit rigorous tests, interviews etc. But it's way cheaper and faster to have them tick boxes on forms.
  - justforyou 7y ago
    >> They correlate and as I said are 'easily measured.. proxies for intelligence' You're going to have to provide meaningful evidence to back up the assertion that numbers of patents (as well as the other criteria listed) actually correlate to higher intelligence.
sgt101 7y ago
There are ethical reasons - of course, but we should also consider safety; which will be a tough one for CRISPR for heritable conditions. What if a modification goes sour in the second generation? What if it leads to mid life cancer? It might be a long time before we know if this is genuinely safe.

justforyou 7y ago

>> educational attainment, elite professional success, number of patents, publications etc. None of these are meaningful measures of intelligence.

sgt101 7y ago
As anyone who has worked at a university or a research lab has said always!
haihaibye 7y ago
They correlate and as I said are 'easily measured.. proxies for intelligence' You can't just sequence people who have accomplished great things and are widely recognised as geniuses as there aren't enough of then and they're busy. We need huge sample sizes. Ideally, you'd sequence a million people and have them sit rigorous tests, interviews etc. But it's way cheaper and faster to have them tick boxes on forms.
- justforyou 7y ago
  >> They correlate and as I said are 'easily measured.. proxies for intelligence' You're going to have to provide meaningful evidence to back up the assertion that numbers of patents (as well as the other criteria listed) actually correlate to higher intelligence.

sgt101 7y ago

There are ethical reasons - of course, but we should also consider safety; which will be a tough one for CRISPR for heritable conditions. What if a modification goes sour in the second generation? What if it leads to mid life cancer? It might be a long time before we know if this is genuinely safe.