[QUOTE=athelas]
See, it’s this kind of emotional, knee-jerk reaction that makes me wary of this position. If the “objective” measurements don’t show all races are the same, the measurements must be wrong, or better, yet, “meaningless” - which has the added benefit of discrediting any future research in the area. This “fit the data to the hypothesis” argument (to say nothing of reflexively calling the investigators racists) is sloppy science, and the sign of a desparate idealogue, regardless of what the objective reality is.
[/QUOTE]
Uh, how would you react if people were telling you that scientifically you were supposed to be stupid? It’s not something easily proven otherwise, to others or yourself, like, say, having a small penis is.
@Catpower, I don’t think you have quite got the hang of how this place works, it does take a bit of getting used to - as it is unusual for teh Interwab. Well it took me a bit of time to figure it out. Simply put, if you get emotional then people will bait you, but they will bait you according to ‘the rules’ - so you get swatted by a mod, and they chalk up a point.
If you want to check out the racial IQ of the Ethiopians, then it might be an idea to check out how the Falasha are doing in Israel (they are an Ethiopian tribe that maintained that they were Israelites and got airlifted into Israel) - perhaps an Israeli or four would pop up with some stats.
@TomnDeb, honestly I was not moderating - just ahem, pointing out the not so obvious.
That East/West migration stuff makes sense, I’ve long thought that populations got pushed out to Northern climes, got tough and returned with a vengeance. Also I’ve pondered on the value of geographical inaccessability. For example mainland Europe was normally technologically ahead of Britain, yet when stuff got to Britain it took root and prospered, mainly I suspect, because we had fewer armies on the rampage.
Long ago I read a theory that the Roman Empire actually imploded because of disease, and that the heartland was seriously underpopulated, as people went further afield and brought back new interesting bugs. A bit like syphillis from the Americas - or maybe H5N1.
[QUOTE=athelas]
Out of curiosity, not trying to undermine your assertion, how do they test those tests? How do they know that a “cultural bias” is not, in fact, a population-level difference in intelligence? Trying to isolate one of two variables, without a foolproof way for testing for either of them, seems difficult. It’s analogous to determining which thermometer among an assortion of broken ones is correct, without any “control” to set the standard.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve taken IQ tests in English which included questions along the lines of “GAHICCO is an acronym for what US city?” only the examples in question were towns that not even all my American coworkers recognized.
So that’s one kind of IQ test that’s definitely biased, since it expects a certain knowledge of geography.
The Mensa tests are completely graphic-driven; this means a lot less expectations re. previous training, but still I’d expect someone from a culture where maps and written language are commonplace (i.e., one where people interpret graphic symbols as a matter of daily life and without even thinking about it) to do much better than someone where they only draw the occasional line-map on the sand.
At Uni we only had one guy who admitted (well bragged) that he was in MENSA
It was a bit sad as he was studying theology, was an amiable but rather dumb bear, and realistically in the tail of our left biased Poisson Distribution.
It is only in recent years, and from teh Intrawhob that I realized that some extremely bright people join MENSA - well only one that I know of.
[QUOTE=FRDE]
At Uni we only had one guy who admitted (well bragged) that he was in MENSA
It was a bit sad as he was studying theology, was an amiable but rather dumb bear, and realistically in the tail of our left biased Poisson Distribution.
It is only in recent years, and from teh Intrawhob that I realized that some extremely bright people join MENSA - well only one that I know of.
[/QUOTE]
I think intelligence is a bit like pornography–you know it when you see but it’s hard to define. Plus there are so many types of intelligences. Even when we’re talking about G, there is still a gut reaction that usually trumps the “Mensa Member” placard. I’ve run into many high-IQ-ers who either can’t remember where they put their umbrella or think the moon landing was faked…
Not every idiot has a savant side but there are plenty of savants with an idiot side.
[QUOTE=Gorsnak]
The climate barrier is not postulated to have stopped human movement, but movement of domesticated species (mostly plants). If you think it’s absolute nonsense, I suggest you try raising Canadian Hard Red Spring Wheat varieties in Kansas and see how well you do.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=FRDE]
At Uni we only had one guy who admitted (well bragged) that he was in MENSA
It was a bit sad as he was studying theology, was an amiable but rather dumb bear, and realistically in the tail of our left biased Poisson Distribution.
It is only in recent years, and from teh Intrawhob that I realized that some extremely bright people join MENSA - well only one that I know of.
[/QUOTE]
The one mensa member that I knew had incredible practical intelligence ,with a very few pieces of information he could achieve a good solution to a real life problem in a very fast time indeed.
But he was the most amazingly immature person I have ever met ,throwing tantrums if he didnt get his own way and deliberately starting arguments with whoever happened to be around at the time for the sake of it if he was in a bad mood.
Dont know if intelligence and emotional stability are connected.
[QUOTE=Chief Pedant]
I think intelligence is a bit like pornography–you know it when you see but it’s hard to define.
[/QUOTE]
And that’s fine for a colloquialism. But if you’re going to claim research on intelligence is objective science, you’d have to at least start with defining the term.
[QUOTE=pizzabrat]
And that’s fine for a colloquialism. But if you’re going to claim research on intelligence is objective science, you’d have to at least start with defining the term.
[/QUOTE]
I once had a Polish dentist who was an officer in the Polish army in WWII
he defined intelligence as: The ability to survive