tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post3640503477529507103..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Stray Thoughts On GeneticsAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-54629637677401732402021-07-30T16:35:42.583-04:002021-07-30T16:35:42.583-04:00https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B_hBptFPE0Y/TnzEtOD_8GI...https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B_hBptFPE0Y/TnzEtOD_8GI/AAAAAAAAAhk/8SMyBm1VkXM/s1600/WhatMeWorry.pngAssistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-46165321719699107442021-07-30T15:49:38.747-04:002021-07-30T15:49:38.747-04:00What, me worry?
Cousin EddieWhat, me worry?<br /><br />Cousin EddieNarrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14043247682000851606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-80103372856826717612021-07-30T12:40:29.285-04:002021-07-30T12:40:29.285-04:00Asians outscore Whites, Males and Females score th...Asians outscore Whites, Males and Females score the same, and they measure financial success and behavior just about as well as you'd predict for something that measures an ability necessary for a wide range of cognitive skills. Despite the claim of cultural bias, it exists only at the extremes, of people who don't use paper-and pencil in their society (and there are workarounds for that) and cultures that have no concept of being asked questions for a test that means anything. So Amazonians, Papuans. African-Americans actually do a little better on the supposedly culture-bound sections of the test than on the math portions, for example. Those sorts of problems that were quite naturally there in the original designs - we all have to <i>start</i> with our own definition of what intelligence is - were reduced very early as people moved the test to other cultural and geographic areas and the charges of bias were repeated every year. There isn't evidence for it now. I have seen the reports and accommodattions that testing psychologists do for immigrant patients from all over the world. The tests are fine, even for Nepalese and Chileans. Of course, and incompetent tester can give you a bad result. That happens. So if you are tempted to resume worrying about it, Eddie - don't.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-71453225778592063512021-07-30T12:14:08.463-04:002021-07-30T12:14:08.463-04:00I used to be proud of my "high IQ." The...I used to be proud of my "high IQ." Then I learned that IQ tests really only measured Whiteness, Maleness, and Middleclassness. Apparently I was exceptionally White, Male, and Middleclass.<br /><br />In my senior years, I've decided to be proud of that.<br /><br />Cousin EddieNarrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14043247682000851606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-26918555189253983162021-07-30T11:33:13.287-04:002021-07-30T11:33:13.287-04:00Assistant Village Idiot: In the discussion of meas...<b>Assistant Village Idiot</b>: <i>In the discussion of measuring intelligence, people often give an example of being placed in a hunter-gatherer's environment and not being as smart as they are. </i><br /><br />While intelligence certainly has a genetic component, IQ tests are often culturally biased. What people usually mean when speaking of hunter-gatherers is that someone who tests high on a standard IQ test may test low on a test of intelligence devised by a community of hunter-gatherers—not that some people are not smarter than others.Zachrielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16081260898264733380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-19975015775769871752021-07-29T20:14:52.714-04:002021-07-29T20:14:52.714-04:00Sometimes even more drastic punishments than disap...Sometimes even more drastic punishments than disapproval are in order to keep the society as a whole from disintegration.<br /><br />A systematic examination of "old-fashioned" rules might be enlightening. As a hot-button for-instance, birth control wasn't acceptable for Christians. The Anglicans decided that it was OK in some circumstances, and suddenly multitudes discovered that they qualified for the exceptions. By the time we got married, it was simply assumed that everyone would use it. The side effects from that have not all been benign--too few children to support the oldsters, for example. The advertised "child-free" seem rather unpleasantly materialist--but that may be sampling bias to encourage the advertisers.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-38850906456146217142021-07-29T19:13:02.211-04:002021-07-29T19:13:02.211-04:00Actually JBS Haldane, although the simple 'BS&...Actually JBS Haldane, although the simple 'BS' seems applicable to many of his ideas.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-26859100033081647172021-07-29T19:11:58.031-04:002021-07-29T19:11:58.031-04:00"BS Haldane said "I would lay down my li..."BS Haldane said "I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins," being clever and cute about the math of natural selection at the gene level."<br /><br />Yet Haldane was a socialist...a Marxist, actually...which seems contradictory to his above equation.<br />David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.com