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It may be a small, minority world view, but it’s one that I think shines some light on the psyche of contemporary tech culture. It does. And investigating why

It may be a small, minority world view, but it’s one that I think shines some light on the psyche of contemporary tech culture. It does. And investigating why geeks are into HBD or nootropics could probably be an interesting article. I wondered about it. Maybe you could even take a look where this disappointment with the regular media/science/gov is coming from. this interest just happens to coincide with growing media attention being paid to the problems of the tech industry, from sexism in video games to “bro culture” in the tech industry to gentrification in the Bay Area. Haha. Or inflate your own importance and call people racist. That will probably, and sadly, get even more clicks (while fuelling disapointment with the media).

ejstronge 13y ago
Using the word 'racist' is inflammatory and often seems to be an affront, so I can appreciate your disappointment with the author. However, I don't see how many 'human biodiversity' (HBD) claims are not racist - that is, they make claims about individuals based on the social construct of race though they ostensibly mean to discuss 'biology.'
- davidgerard 13y ago
  They seriously talk about "African" as if it were a tight genetic grouping (like Icelanders or Ashkenazim) - Africa has the greatest human genetic diversity per distance of anywhere, as one would expect (diversity per distance is greatest near the point of origin).
  - Chen77 13y ago
    Who is they? What I find amazing is that people are surprised that group differences have arisen over the last 50,000 years. Gene-culture coevolution makes it seem inevitable that different cultures will favor different traits. Therefore you're going to see some average differences. There are obvious examples, a more polygamous society where women do more of the work (eg female farming systems) with lower paternal investment, might favor different traits to those where there is State control, monogamy and greater paternal investment. I'd recommend that you read some posts by Steve Hsu, Peter Frost, or 'The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution'.
- spindritf 13y ago
  My disappointment is that it stopped at "racists." Because it brings up a more interesting question of why a geek sitting in front of a computer, out of a thousand topics and million cats, chose to investigate IQ differences between populations. And it went far beyond idle curiosity. Here was his chance to actually shed some light "on the psyche of contemporary tech culture." Same with the popularity of nootropics. I know of very few groups (body builders, athletes, and geeks may actually be the only ones) so interested in boosting performance. This is interesting. Shed the light on the psyche. Does those two tie into the disappointment with the mainstream news and opinion outlets, contemporary scientific institutions, and governance? I'd venture a yes. Isn't that interesting? Just to me? Maybe I'll write that article one day then. His loss.
davidgerard 13y ago
They do in point of fact espouse scientific racism, a couple of steps down the euphemism treadmill (scientific racialism -> race realism -> human biodiversity) That this makes them cross the moral event horizon for many people does not make it (a) unimportant or (b) untrue.
Chen77 13y ago
I suspect in part it's because geeks can think for themselves and look past taboos (eg. HBD is pretty logical and evidence based once you look at it)

ejstronge 13y ago

Using the word 'racist' is inflammatory and often seems to be an affront, so I can appreciate your disappointment with the author. However, I don't see how many 'human biodiversity' (HBD) claims are not racist - that is, they make claims about individuals based on the social construct of race though they ostensibly mean to discuss 'biology.'

davidgerard 13y ago
They seriously talk about "African" as if it were a tight genetic grouping (like Icelanders or Ashkenazim) - Africa has the greatest human genetic diversity per distance of anywhere, as one would expect (diversity per distance is greatest near the point of origin).
- Chen77 13y ago
  Who is they? What I find amazing is that people are surprised that group differences have arisen over the last 50,000 years. Gene-culture coevolution makes it seem inevitable that different cultures will favor different traits. Therefore you're going to see some average differences. There are obvious examples, a more polygamous society where women do more of the work (eg female farming systems) with lower paternal investment, might favor different traits to those where there is State control, monogamy and greater paternal investment. I'd recommend that you read some posts by Steve Hsu, Peter Frost, or 'The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution'.
spindritf 13y ago
My disappointment is that it stopped at "racists." Because it brings up a more interesting question of why a geek sitting in front of a computer, out of a thousand topics and million cats, chose to investigate IQ differences between populations. And it went far beyond idle curiosity. Here was his chance to actually shed some light "on the psyche of contemporary tech culture." Same with the popularity of nootropics. I know of very few groups (body builders, athletes, and geeks may actually be the only ones) so interested in boosting performance. This is interesting. Shed the light on the psyche. Does those two tie into the disappointment with the mainstream news and opinion outlets, contemporary scientific institutions, and governance? I'd venture a yes. Isn't that interesting? Just to me? Maybe I'll write that article one day then. His loss.

davidgerard 13y ago

They do in point of fact espouse scientific racism, a couple of steps down the euphemism treadmill (scientific racialism -> race realism -> human biodiversity) That this makes them cross the moral event horizon for many people does not make it (a) unimportant or (b) untrue.

Chen77 13y ago

I suspect in part it's because geeks can think for themselves and look past taboos (eg. HBD is pretty logical and evidence based once you look at it)