Harry,
I have been associated with some good schools and some mediocre ones and
can attest that doctoral degrees are more a measure of tenacity than any
basic intelligence. Why is it that Michael Dell and Bill Gates could drop
out as undergraduates and do so well? In fact, Gates dropped out a year
earlier than Dell which might account for why he is doing so well. What
do the say?: 'A' students teach 'B' students to work for 'C' students.
For those interested in higher ed, here is a sobering column:
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/10/04/Columns/New_system_has_higher.shtml
Bill Ward
On Wed, 02 Oct 2002 17:01:51 -0700 Harry Pollard
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Keith,
>
> Heinlein wrote about this in a short story - the marching Morons -
> in which
> the speedometers of the cars showed 70 - but the car was only going
> 30. As
> I recall, the world was being run - to protect the low IQs - from an
>
> underground complex under Antarctica.
>
> That must have been 20-30 years ago.
>
> Yet, it's just science-fiction.
>
> The professional class are trapped in their necessary debts -
> mortgage,
> insurance, university costs. They can't really get out from under -
> at
> least not while they feel responsibilities on their backs.
>
> Also, IQ's are not everything. Many PhD's are hired by people who
> haven't
> finished high school.
>
> I remember some years ago a Canadian article that pointed out that
> not one
> of the Canadian bank presidents across the Dominion had completed
> university. (How do you like Dominion, fellers!)
>
> Some might say: "So that's why we have the problems."
>
> True or not, I think that high IQ's as related to professional
> competence
> are not the be all, and end all, of the discussion.
>
> There are certainly gradations of competence, no matter the IQ or
> the
> educational qualifications, of people. Maybe - and here's a thought
> - there
> are super-people who really keep everything going in spite of the
> less than
> competent majority of high IQ's.
>
> I had better stop. I'm frightening myself.
>
> Harry
> ___________________________________________
>
> Keith wrote:
>
> >Mike,
> >
> >At 09:34 01/10/02 -0600, you wrote:
> >(KH)
> > >> The one big argument against this bifurcation becoming
> permanent is
> > >> demographic -- that inter-racial mixing (and thus inter-IQ)
> mixing due to
> > >> immigration is occurring at a faster rate than physical (and
> breeding)
> > >> separation (hitherto required for speciation). It is clearly
> true that
> > >> high-IQ parents at the present time are having fewer children at
> far less
> > >> than replacement rates (and so are all other parents in
> developed
> > >> countries). Nevertheless, the pace of innovation means that
> high-IQ
> > >> individuals with high level technocratic skills is becoming
> increasingly
> > >> required. One result of this seems to be that income
> differentials are
> > >> growing within developed countries.
> >(MH)
> > >What about the regression to the mean? Not all children of
> > >high IQ parents have high IQs and not all children of low IQ
> parents
> > >have low IQs.
> >
> >Yes, I'm fully aware of this -- and it's yet another factor which I
> should
> >have mentioned when I talked of differential demographic trends
> which are
> >tending to reduce the average IQ of a population. However, it's the
> latter
> >trend which is more important at present, and my hypothesis implies
> that
> >the present situation of differential replacement rates (as between
> high-IQ
> >and others) is not necessarily permanent.
> >
> >One doesn't have to speculate too wildly to suppose that at some
> period in
> >the future (due to higher energy costs or climatic change or some
> other
> >factor) survival will be much more difficult than now. For the last
> 100
> >years or so, mankind has had an exceptionally comfortable time due
> to
> >fossil fuels.
> >
> >Leaving that on one side for the moment, I think we can say with
> reasonable
> >certainty that embryo selection (e-s) will continue apace for three
> >reasons: (a) as a byproduct of IVF for infertile couples, (b)
> elective e-s
> >for avoiding deleterious alleles, and (c) selective e-s for
> desirable genes
> >or gene clusters. This by itself will tend to be adopted by the
> high-IQ
> >portion of the population rather than the low IQs for reasons of
> both
> >finance and more purposeful parentage.
> >
> >Let's also assume that biogenetics will enable selected embryos to
> be taken
> >right through fetus stage and then to full term in vitro! This is
> not
> >improbable. This is almost certainly a lesser problem than the
> selection of
> >high-IQ gene clusters (or other chosen traits) which is probably
> more
> >distant. Now let me return to the likelihood of a period of great
> economic
> >stress. In my opinion, high-IQ mothers (that is, those who tend to
> have
> >interesting, well-paid jobs) would readily revert to the
> aristocratic
> >practices of the past in delegating the upbringing of their
> children to
> >nurses (who are likely to be relatively lowly paid). In that
> situation,
> >high-IQ parents could have a large number of children without
> personal
> >inconvenience, and thus reverse the present differential
> replacement rates.
> >(It has astonished me in England to see how quickly the
> middling-rich have
> >taken to employ au pairs and nursery nurses in recent years.)
> >
> >Now all this may seem highly speculative, depending on too many
> "ifs" but
> >if you believe, as I do, for one or other of several probable
> reasons, that
> >harder times *are* coming and yet, at the same time, high-IQ people
> (as
> >everybody else, of course) want to retain the standards and
> luxuries that
> >they have at present, then it's vitally necessary that society as a
> whole
> >is able to maintain its high-tech systems. It isn't inevitable, of
> course
> >-- I suppose it's conceivable that high-IQ people might say (of
> their
> >higher-responsibility jobs -- and working longer hours than anybody
> else
> >[as now seems to be occurring] ) "the game isn't worth the candle"
> and give
> >up, and thus society as a whole winds down to lower levels of
> skills and
> >standard of existence relevant to the newer circumstances (as, say
> >Australian aborigines when game animals were wiped out and in their
> >subsequent simpler environment -- and Tasmanians even more so.)
> >
> >However, I suggest that this would not happen. Even if the high-IQ
> portion
> >of the population decided to give up the burden of supporting all
> the rest,
> >they would not cut off their own noses. They would use every trick
> in the
> >book to so arrange government and society so that they, at least,
> >maintained a high standard of living -- and also that they would be
> >self-sustaining in numbers.
> >
> >(MH)
> > >Also, there is more to intelligence and effectiveness
> > >than what is measured by IQ. The neurobiologist William Calvin
> in "A Brain
> > >For All Seasons" argues that sudden coolings of climate selected
> for humans
> > >and societies best able to share and collaborate, which suggests
> that
> > >Gardners Interpersonal Intelligence may be man's most important
> selected
> > >trait, not capacity for abstract reasoning.
> >
> >This may very well have been important, and even crucial at these
> >particular times of sudden coolings. But unless this Gardner factor
> is
> >measurable we will never know. It's more likely in my opinion that
> this
> >factor would be correlated to a greater or lesser extent with the
> general
> >g-factor measured by IQ tests, inherited and selected over very
> long
> >evolutionary periods even before the emergence of homo sapiens.
> >
> > >Why the concern over a sudden cooling? Because that is what may
> happen.
> > >Climatologists have been puzzled by the sudden severe little ice
> age
> > >of the Younger Dryas 12,500 BP to 12,000 BP but have finally
> figured
> > >out how they think it happened. They are brought on by warmings
> that
> > >melt sufficient ice to flood the North Atlantic with fresh water
> and
> > >stop the Atlantic Conveyor and hence the Gulf Stream, which keeps
> Europe
> > >and Eastern North America warm in winter. They have also figured
> out from
> > >ice cores that similar sudden coolings have happened hundreds of
> times
> > >before. Each time human populations would have crashed - been
> heavily
> > >selected - for cooperation in the face of great adversity.
> > >
> > >The Woods Hole Oceanographic has been keeping track of the
> salinity of
> > >the North Atlantic and is now sounding the alarm that it has
> fallen
> > >far enough to be concerned about a Conveyor stoppage.
> > >http://www.whoi.edu/home/about/whatsnew_abruptclimate.html
> > >
> > >How severe it might be is another question. They are suggesting
> an annual
> > >average drop for Europe of 5 degrees F, enough to freeze ports
> and
> > >shipping lanes and cause crops to fail.
> > >
> > >That would be more severe than the Little Ice Age, so I am
> sceptical. Severe
> > >sudden coolings in the past were associated with deglaciation, so
> the
> > >amounts of fresh water involved were enormous, much larger than
> Greenland
> > >and Arctic sea ice could produce today. What may be more likely
> according
> > >to two Swiss climatologists (Stockner and Schmittner) is a
> slowing of the
> > >Conveyor with occasional brief cessations of one of the three
> downwelling
> > >sites. That would lead to a slight cooling trend with short
> somewhat
> > >cooler variations from trend.
> > >
> > >As always, there are other data to muddy the waters. These
> sudden coolings,
> > >at least for the past 10,000 years that we have data, are also
> coincident
> > >with reductions in the amount of energy radiated by the sun.
> Right now
> > >solar radiation is in an up cycle.
> > >
> > >Ain't life interesting.
> >
> >The above comments on the Conveyor effect are extremely
> interesting. I was
> >aware of it, of course, but haven't been as closely in touch with
> >discussion about it as you've obviously been.
> >
> >Keith
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
> >------------
> >
> >Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com
> >6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
> >Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>________________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
> >---
> >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> >Version: 6.0.391 / Virus Database: 222 - Release Date: 9/19/2002
>
> ******************************
> Harry Pollard
> Henry George School of LA
> Box 655
> Tujunga CA 91042
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Tel: (818) 352-4141
> Fax: (818) 353-2242
> *******************************
>
>
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
