45
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 36 points 1 year ago

Yes general intelligence is related to genes. Two important caveats:

  1. Don’t forget the environment. See the Flynn effect, according to which measures of general intelligence have risen over time, showing the effect of the environment. This is just like height. The Dutch were once amongst the shortest people in Europe, and now they’re amongst the tallest. It’s true that they are tall now, in part, because of their genes, but, since they used to be short, obviously there’s much more to height than just genes. The best genes won’t help an unwatered seed sprout. Someone with low intelligence now might have the genes of a genius, if only they had received an education.

  2. Racists are still wrong. There is an overwhelming consensus that there is no genetic basis for race. There is no gene or set of genes or distribution of genes that all and only members of a race have. In fact, there is more genetic variation within races than between races!

this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
45 points (88.1% liked)

Asklemmy

43373 readers
1424 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS