A high IQ. Why does it matter? Is it Overrated ??

[rgray222]

Posted by Bruce G Charlton (here)
I think it likely that the top level of the global establishment already know all this stuff, and are deliberately concealing and suppressing it - and some of "Their" apparently irrational behaviours can perhaps be explained in terms of trying to "control" (i.e. deliberately cause and thereby manage) the incipient Giga-Death (by the old Apocalyptic killers: disease - including poisoning, starvation, and lethal violence) and of course ensure their own survival and thriving throughout!

You are making a good case for Global Government with the intelligentsia controlling the population through the deliberate manipulation of human reproduction to increase the occurrence of desirable traits and decrease the occurrence of undesirable ones. This does not mean that the Global Elites would manipulate the population in the direction of higher intelligence. They will more than likely only need a population base of 200 - 300 million people. They will need computer engineers and an army of maintenance people to keep AI running at peak performance. They will need people in the performing arts, such as choreographers and actors, who require creativity, originality, and social skills that AI cannot easily replicate. They will need doctors, nurses, agriculture workers, and a host of other people to keep things humming along. Anyone paying attention can see that a Global Government is on the way, and I honestly believe it is unstoppable; we just don't know when it will arrive or exactly how it will look and behave.

I understand that this may sound a bit far-fetched and it is certainly is a wild card, but I sincerely believe that our planet Earth is a self-regulating, sentient, intelligent organism. It can regulate populations in ways that we have not even conceived, it can remove mankind from the planet in one day. It also has the ability (more likely) to regulate the human intelligence level to ensure man's survival. My money is on the latter; we are here for a purpose that we do not fully understand, and that purpose is known by our planet, and when the time is right, it will provide mankind with the tools and the pathway to fulfilling that purpose.

[leavesoftrees]

This is natural selection operating very powerfully, because intelligence is highly heritable (about 80% of variance in IQ tests being statistically-explained by heredity). By contrast, environment and upbringing have very little effect on measured intelligence - as evidenced by twin studies, twin adoption studies (with different parents) and the like.

I find this hard to believe I immediately thought of the reduction in crime once they removed lead from petrol. Poor nutrition, access to good education and teachers. Fostering curiosity and love of learning would surely impact IQ?

[Bruce G Charlton]

@ rgray222 - "You are making a good case for Global Government with the intelligentsia controlling the population through the deliberate manipulation of human reproduction to increase the occurrence of desirable traits and decrease the occurrence of undesirable ones."

No I'm not!

Anyway, it is probable that this would not work from where we are now; even if such a thing as a good-motivated world government were possible, which it is not.

@ Leaves of trees - "Fostering curiosity and love of learning would surely impact IQ?"

It might affect IQ test scores, by factors like familiarity, practice, learning tricks etc - but probably not as much as you suppose. It is hard to show much effect of (for example) different schools on intelligence, although they may affects performance - but again, much less than most people suppose.

Identical twins separated after birth and raised in different families, end-up (as adults) with near identical IQs - so long as one of them does not have some kind of major trauma or illness.

However, such differences in training and opportunities would not (except if they were extreme and damaging) affect the underlying "general intelligence" or "g", which is what IQ tests are trying to measure indirectly. General intelligence can be thought of as something like brain processing speed, rather analogous to the Intel chip in a computer. See this for further explanation of the nature of intelligence.