| The point of my anecdata isn't to prove a theory. It's to demonstrate that the burden of proof should be on those claiming intelligence is environmental. If that's your theory, then how do you explain my experience? I agree that IQ measures test-taking ability. If you agree with that and agree with it being genetic, then all that's left is seeing that IQ correlates strongly with life outcomes like income. If you want to disagree with IQ being "intelligence" then fine. Who cares what you call it. What matters is there is this genetic factor that correlates with life outcomes. Magnus Carlsen isn't a straw man. He's a demonstration of genetic determination apart from environmental factors you're lumping in as "heritability." His abilities are genetic, not environmental. Same with someone like Kim Peek. What _is_ ridiculous is for you to argue such things aren't genetic, and that extraordinary claim requires proof. The point about the housecat is strong. It shows that we already know that the brain is "programmed" by genetics. It's a simple point, of course, but it's one you seem not to understand or to ignore. On Turkheimer's study, yes you can lower people's IQ by various means (a simple one is lead poisoning). That doesn't mean there isn't a genetically determined IQ ceiling for each person. But your last paragraph is where you showed your real stripes. I get it. You desperately want everyone to have the same genetic IQ so you can rev up the Rube Goldberg machine of woke machinery to argue everything is implicit bias and racism. The truth is, on average you can't make it so families struggle less and poverty disappears, because both of those concepts exist in reference to a distribution. Compared to families in, say, 1500 Poland, NO American families struggle or live in poverty. There will always be a distribution of outcomes around a median, and a key determinant of those outcomes will always be genetic factors, among which are physical strength, speed, endurance, dexterity and, yes, IQ. It must have been a hoot playing D&D with you as a kid. "OK I'm fine rolling for Strength, Dexterity and Constitution but if you insist on rolling for Intelligence I'm going home and putting up a poster on your house saying you're a racist!" |