4 ms·

Can everyone be an Einstein?

19 points by prakash 18y ago

MaysonL 18y ago
PDF link to the original research, well worth looking at: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.full.pdf http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.full...
bloch 18y ago
"Jaeggi’s fluid-intelligence game works, but it’s lab-based at the moment and has yet to be adapted for general use." You can try it right now at cognitivefun.net created by whacked_new: http://cognitivefun.net/ http://cognitivefun.net/ http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whacked_new http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whacked_new
mellow 18y ago
Probably not, but I've met some people with incredibly high innate intelligence and poor formal education. Really amazing/scary at the same time.
- gnaritas 18y ago
  Why would that be scary? Most people still don't attend college; attendance certainly has no bearing on innate intelligence.
LPTS 18y ago
What if einstein was just a dumb dumb compared to most of what humanity could evolve into? What if people like Einstein are like the first monkeys who spend most time on two legs and were missing fur, and our concept of intelligence in too narrow and limited to recognize that what we call genius is the lower end of the bell curve our species will evolve to occupy?
- litewulf 18y ago
  Thats like asking if what if DSL is slow compared to FIOS or something when everyone else is on dial up. Sure, I guess you can always find someone smarter. But really, Einstein had a particular "smartness" and existed at a certain point in time that made him notable. To say that someone sometime could come along and be better is pretty meaningless. Just because the local maximum is not the global maximum does not imply the local maxima are meaningless.
  - LPTS 18y ago
    It seems to me that if the local maximum in 1940 was lower than the global minimum in 2140, interesting things would happen, and that's worth wondering about. How to best give people nutrition, love, security and education and everything they need to develop to their full potential are all tractable problems. How to manipulate human brains to enhance performance is something we learn more about every day. A guy in australia is unlocking savant abilities is some people with TMS. It's quite possible as these ideas blend with each other, a revolution in living could happen where the average person was functioning at a higher cognitive level then einstein. It may in fact be the only way we don't all kill ourselves by blowing up the planet.
    - litewulf 18y ago
      I doubt the global minimum is going to change too much in the short term. There are people with philosophical objections against say genetic treatment for diseases, and I think certain developmental disabilities will remain with us for a long time. (Plus, oftentimes people who are immensely smart in one respect are lacking in others, so perhaps there will always be room for, say, math savants who can do little else.)
      - LPTS 18y ago
        I should of said global average rather then minimum. Too late to edit. The world has changed that drastically that fast before. It only takes one generation. Figure out how to really educate kids to a maximal degree. Post-religion anti-indoctrination memetic inoculation. Get everyone on the planet food. No anxiety around sex. Pain medication for anyone who needed it. Smarter technology. Less people living lives of quiet desperation. If all that stuff happens, people could get smart fast. I think another shift the scale of widespread literacy is possible, and it might push the average center of gravity above the geniuses of the 20th century. Not the minimum. Oops.

19 points by prakash 18y ago

PDF link to the original research, well worth looking at: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.full.pdf http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/04/25/0801268105.full...

bloch 18y ago

"Jaeggi’s fluid-intelligence game works, but it’s lab-based at the moment and has yet to be adapted for general use." You can try it right now at cognitivefun.net created by whacked_new: http://cognitivefun.net/ http://cognitivefun.net/ http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whacked_new http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whacked_new

mellow 18y ago

Probably not, but I've met some people with incredibly high innate intelligence and poor formal education. Really amazing/scary at the same time.

gnaritas 18y ago
Why would that be scary? Most people still don't attend college; attendance certainly has no bearing on innate intelligence.

LPTS 18y ago

What if einstein was just a dumb dumb compared to most of what humanity could evolve into? What if people like Einstein are like the first monkeys who spend most time on two legs and were missing fur, and our concept of intelligence in too narrow and limited to recognize that what we call genius is the lower end of the bell curve our species will evolve to occupy?

litewulf 18y ago
Thats like asking if what if DSL is slow compared to FIOS or something when everyone else is on dial up. Sure, I guess you can always find someone smarter. But really, Einstein had a particular "smartness" and existed at a certain point in time that made him notable. To say that someone sometime could come along and be better is pretty meaningless. Just because the local maximum is not the global maximum does not imply the local maxima are meaningless.
- LPTS 18y ago
  It seems to me that if the local maximum in 1940 was lower than the global minimum in 2140, interesting things would happen, and that's worth wondering about. How to best give people nutrition, love, security and education and everything they need to develop to their full potential are all tractable problems. How to manipulate human brains to enhance performance is something we learn more about every day. A guy in australia is unlocking savant abilities is some people with TMS. It's quite possible as these ideas blend with each other, a revolution in living could happen where the average person was functioning at a higher cognitive level then einstein. It may in fact be the only way we don't all kill ourselves by blowing up the planet.
  - litewulf 18y ago
    I doubt the global minimum is going to change too much in the short term. There are people with philosophical objections against say genetic treatment for diseases, and I think certain developmental disabilities will remain with us for a long time. (Plus, oftentimes people who are immensely smart in one respect are lacking in others, so perhaps there will always be room for, say, math savants who can do little else.)
    - LPTS 18y ago
      I should of said global average rather then minimum. Too late to edit. The world has changed that drastically that fast before. It only takes one generation. Figure out how to really educate kids to a maximal degree. Post-religion anti-indoctrination memetic inoculation. Get everyone on the planet food. No anxiety around sex. Pain medication for anyone who needed it. Smarter technology. Less people living lives of quiet desperation. If all that stuff happens, people could get smart fast. I think another shift the scale of widespread literacy is possible, and it might push the average center of gravity above the geniuses of the 20th century. Not the minimum. Oops.