[contingencies]

There is no such thing as heritable genius

I disagree with this statement but is difficult to debunk unless 'genius' is nailed down. Nominally if a large part of socially communicable (and thereby recorded) analytical or creative capacity ("genius") is experiential rather than genetic, then it is heritable in the sense that it can be taught. If it is taught to many, however, then by some definitions it becomes non-genius.

Are the large number of documented ascetic/hermit traditions teaching genius? Preserving an alternative worldview? Simply crazy?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

[dkarapetyan]

I mean as a complex biological system phenomenon genius is unstable a bit like unstable weather phenomenon. We don't have windstorms all the time but every so often global currents and temperatures line up and we get one. I imagine genius is a bit like that at the genetic level.

I think genius can be nurtured and as a society we can make better use of all our geniuses but I don't think it can be taught. It really has to do with brain wiring and although much of it is plastic some of the defaults can't be changed and those default settings are usually the ones that make or break a genius.

[contingencies]

So you think genius is genetic, but mystically uninheritable? Interesting perspective.

[dkarapetyan]

There is nothing mystical about it. It is possible for something to be genetically predetermined without being heritable in any meaningful way because the underlying genetic patterns are unstable. Going back to my windstorm example, windstorms don't last long because the energy inherent in the storm basically rips it apart.

You keep glossing over that fact for some reason.