92 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
92 lines
6.1 KiB
Plaintext
Selecting for intelligence
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<p>Mike Smith relays an interesting possible explanation for the observed<br />
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statistical fact that American and European Jews have a mean IQ a<br />
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standard deviation higher than Caucasian gentiles:</p>
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<blockquote><p>
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During the period from ancient times to modern times, there was a<br />
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constant phenomenon of Jews converting to Christianity (there were<br />
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many social pressures to do so). In a nutshell, the idea is that the<br />
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lower-IQ Jews were statistically more likely to convert, as it freed<br />
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them from having to learn to read Torah. During the Middle Ages, it<br />
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was not worth the effort for most people to become literate; the<br />
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payback was not worth it. Books were rare and expensive, and learning<br />
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to read was no guarantee of getting ahead in life. Of course, people<br />
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like to do what they’re especially good at, and the higher-IQ’s among<br />
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the Jews did not find learning to read to be such a burden. As such,<br />
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they were statistically less likely to convert (and statistically more<br />
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likely to become fathers of many children in a culture that valued<br />
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intelligence.) It is worth noting that in ancient times, Jews were not<br />
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stereotyped as especially intelligent; that stereotype arose in the<br />
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Middle Ages.
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</p></blockquote>
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<p>This is a special case of one of my favorite Damned Ideas, originally<br />
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developed by John W. Campbell in the 1960s from some speculations<br />
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by a forgotten French anthropologist. Campbell proposed that the<br />
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manhood initiation rituals found in many primitive tribes are a<br />
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selective machine designed to permit adulthood and reproduction only<br />
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to those who can demonstrate verbal fluency and the ability to override<br />
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instinctive fears on verbal command.</p>
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<p>Campbell suggests that all living humans are descended from groups<br />
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of hominids that, having evolved full-human mental capability in some<br />
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of their members, found the overhead of supporting the dullards too<br />
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high. So they began selecting for traits correlated with intelligence<br />
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through initiation rituals timed for just as their offspring were<br />
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achieving reproductive capacity; losers got driven out, or possibly<br />
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killed and eaten.</p>
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<p>Campbell pointed out that the common elements of tribal initiations<br />
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are (a) scarring or cicatricing of the skin, opening the way for<br />
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lethal infections, (b) alteration or mutilation of the genitals,<br />
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threatening the ability to reproduce, and (b) alteration of the mouth<br />
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and teeth, threatening the ability to eat. These seem particularly<br />
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well optimized for inducing maximum instinctive fear in the subject<br />
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while actually being relatively safe under controlled and relatively<br />
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hygenic conditions. The core test of initiation is this: can the<br />
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subject conquer fear and submit to the initiation on the basis<br />
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of learned (verbal, in preliterate societies) command?</p>
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<p>Campbell noticed the first order effect was to shift the mean of<br />
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the IQ bell curve upwards over generations. The second-order effect,<br />
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which if he noticed he didn’t talk about, was to start an arms race in<br />
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initiation rituals; competing bands experimented with different<br />
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selective filters (not consciously but through random variation).<br />
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Setting the bar too low or too high would create a bad tradeoff<br />
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between IQ selectivity and maintaining raw reproductive capacity. So<br />
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we’re descended from the hominids who found the right tradeoff to push<br />
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their mean IQ up as rapidly as possible and outcompeted the groups<br />
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that chose less well.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Campbell or his sources, but<br />
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this theory explains why initiation rituals for girls are a rare and<br />
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usually post-literate phenomenon. Male reproductive capacity is<br />
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cheap; a healthy young man can impregnate several young women a day,<br />
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and healthy young men are instinct-wired to do exactly that whenever<br />
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they can get away with it. <em>Female</em> reproductive capacity, on<br />
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the other hand, is scarce and precious. So it makes sense to select<br />
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the boys ruthlessly and give the girls a pass. Of course if you push<br />
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this too far you don’t get enough hunters and fighters, but the right<br />
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tradeoff pretty clearly is not 1-to-1.</p>
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<p>(This would also explain why humans are designed for mild polygyny,<br />
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1 to 3 sexual partners per male. You can spot this by looking at<br />
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where human beings are on various physical characteristics that<br />
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correlate with degree of polygyny in other primates — disparity in<br />
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average size between males and females, for example, is strongly<br />
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correlated with it.)</p>
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<p>What Campbell <em>did</em> notice is that this theory of selection<br />
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by initiation would neatly explain one of the mysteries of human<br />
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paleoanthropology — how human beings got so smart so fast. The<br />
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differences between H. Erectus and H. Sapiens are not large in<br />
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absolute genetic terms (they can’t be, we share over 94% of our genome<br />
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with chimps) but they’re hard to credit given normal rates of<br />
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morphological change in mammals and only two million years to work<br />
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in. <em>Something</em> must have been putting hominids under<br />
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abnormally strong selective pressure — and Campbell’s idea<br />
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is that we did it to ourselves!</p>
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<p>Now, I’m not sure I believe Jews bootstrapping themselves up a<br />
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whole standard deviation in less than 2000 years, but if you apply<br />
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a similar idea to a longer timeframe it begins to look pretty<br />
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reasonable. (And Campbell did suggest that the Jewish practice of<br />
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infant circumcision had originally been a manhood rite.)</p>
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<p>Within my lifetime, I expect we’re going to have the ability to do<br />
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germ-line enhancement of human intelligence. I strongly suspect that that<br />
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will set off another arms race — because cultures that suppress<br />
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that technology will be once again doomed against cultures that do. And<br />
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this time, we’re smart enough to know that in advance…</p>
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