fromderinside
Mazzie Daius
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2008
- Messages
- 15,945
- Basic Beliefs
- optimist
There is something to be said for that point. Rushton's plausible theory is that tropical races adapted to their chaotic unpredictable climates through greater reproductive rates. Greater intelligence may actually be an impediment to that strategy, as children are costly and a threat to the survival of adults. Maybe a case can be made that the ancestors of Polynesians and Australian Aborigines living in northern climates had greater intelligence than their modern descendents, in which case we would know that low intelligence is a positive adaptation, not a lack of adaptation. If civilization completely breaks down through a nuclear winter or whatever, it may be greater reproductivity, not greater intelligence, that ensures the survival of the human species.This also makes me think about evolution. Most everything that exists in evolved species is there for a reason. Could be pure accident or there may be some benefit in a particular set of genes.
Are blacks of a given genetic IQ as part of a package deal? If we democratically alter their IQ, is there a cost we haven't anticipated? .
...or it could mean we've done a pretty shitty job of defining intelligence as a term of fitness, both in what we call intelligence and what we expect it means to our future productivity.