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I see the opposite, these behaviors seem most espoused by intelligent folk, who know there is value in science but whose opinions are riddled with emotional bia

by hudon 6y ago

I see the opposite, these behaviors seem most espoused by intelligent folk, who know there is value in science but whose opinions are riddled with emotional bias, as well as the media and politicians, who in turn know that the words “science” and “fact” can be used to appeal to intelligent folks’ emotions. You can see this clearly when politicians claim to be “leading with science and facts”. It’s all appeal to authority or emotion, with some science going on, but mostly scientism. edit: You can replace “intelligent folk” with “intelligentsia”, as to not imply any IQ difference. I’m contrasting “fringe communities” with the more mainstream “intelligentsia”. The difference at play is perceived intelligence, not actual.

lidHanteyk 6y ago
This is a common misconception. Flat Earthers aren't unintelligent, as your wording implies. They are misled and miseducated. Indeed, humans have roughly been at their current level of intelligence for a hundred millennia, and show no signs of either getting especially smarter or dumber. Since I anticipate somebody appealing to the Flynn effect [0] or similar improvements in intelligence-testing scores across the recent centuries, I would head them off by mentioning Spearman's hypothesis [1]. The obvious reading of the hypothesis is horribly racist, but we can take its contrapositive: If there are largely no changes between humans in recent millennia, then the differences in testing scores are due to cultural biases in the construction of the test and the education of people. And it happens to be the case, due to pedigree collapse [2], that we can be mathematically confident in the homogeneity of humanity (to say nothing of confidence from molecular biology [3]). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearman%27s_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearman%27s_hypothesis [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse [3] https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1435 https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1435
- dehrmann 6y ago
  > If there are largely no changes between humans in recent millennia, then the differences in testing scores are due to cultural biases in the construction of the test and the education of people. Not being sarcastic, I suppose things you see in IQ tests like spacial manipulation are culturally biased in that certain cultures give kids shape-in-the-hole toys, teach them shapes, have geometry classes, etc. You could say improvements in intelligence scores are teaching to the test. You could also say we're standing on the shoulders of giants.

by hudon 6y ago

lidHanteyk 6y ago

This is a common misconception. Flat Earthers aren't unintelligent, as your wording implies. They are misled and miseducated. Indeed, humans have roughly been at their current level of intelligence for a hundred millennia, and show no signs of either getting especially smarter or dumber. Since I anticipate somebody appealing to the Flynn effect [0] or similar improvements in intelligence-testing scores across the recent centuries, I would head them off by mentioning Spearman's hypothesis [1]. The obvious reading of the hypothesis is horribly racist, but we can take its contrapositive: If there are largely no changes between humans in recent millennia, then the differences in testing scores are due to cultural biases in the construction of the test and the education of people. And it happens to be the case, due to pedigree collapse [2], that we can be mathematically confident in the homogeneity of humanity (to say nothing of confidence from molecular biology [3]). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearman%27s_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearman%27s_hypothesis [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse [3] https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1435 https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1435

dehrmann 6y ago
> If there are largely no changes between humans in recent millennia, then the differences in testing scores are due to cultural biases in the construction of the test and the education of people. Not being sarcastic, I suppose things you see in IQ tests like spacial manipulation are culturally biased in that certain cultures give kids shape-in-the-hole toys, teach them shapes, have geometry classes, etc. You could say improvements in intelligence scores are teaching to the test. You could also say we're standing on the shoulders of giants.