On Sun, Dec 07, 2003 at 12:37:53PM -0500, Robin Hanson wrote: > Your story does have a certain plausibility. But you'd need to argue that > the huge increase in IQ that has been documented during this last century > isn't really an increase in intelligence. And doing that makes it harder > to take Jewish IQ as relevant data.
My original game example had multiple equilibria. The "smart" players could be either "tolerated" (marked as "good" at the start) or "persecuted" (marked as "bad"). Given this, genes might adopt a conditional development plan--grow a smart brain if the current environment is one of toleration (based on cues from parents and peers during childhood), otherwise grow a dumb brain. This may be a novel explanation of the Flynn effect (but of course only contributes to it along with other factors such as the greater complexity of modern life).