Intelligence (page 2)

Azalo

i couldnt have said it better than the original poster though i tried but failed miserably on the aforementioned locked thread.

My grandmother, grandfather and uncle all left school after 8th grade gradutation (common in that time and that area). My mother was the first person in her family to even attend high school. She ended up with a Master's degree. I've just recently been accepted into a very good Ph.D. program.

Am I more intelligent than my grandpa? Hardly. He could take apart any engine, and darn near any machine of any kind, figure out why it wasn't working right, fix it, and put it back together. Without a manual. I'd be hopeless with complete instructions. Grandpa was a 'custodian' (back when maintenance people were called that) for a small college. He could discuss mechanics with the PhD professors in the Physics and Chemistry department. They were good friends. He spoke an uneducated rural dialect, but he was one of the most gifted mechanical engineers I've ever known.

My uncle has educated himself to a very high level on World War II and Civil War history (my undergrad degree was in history...he read some of my college-level books on the subject and got at least as much as I did out of them). Am I more intellegent than he is? Hardly. By trade he is a small-business owner of a plumbing and appliance repair business.

Many members of my family were uneducated, but they were all intelligent. It was only the "educated fools" who could not look past the outward appearance to see the intellect.

asleif_dufansdottir

Fiddlesticks

That last post should have also said...My grandmother was a gifted botanist, who could make any plant grow (her century plant bloomed every year). Unfortunately, I didn't inherit that from her!

(wouldn't want to be dissin' grandma!)

happyout

I love this post, you are my hero for the day! It is so hard to get Americans to think "outside the box" of what they are programmed to believe (yes, I'm American, born and raised, but I think more with a world view). I think our society is still so intent on judging, and putting people in a certain group that they don't realize it is really a very narrow way to live. The locked thread is a good example of that.

Thank you for hopefully broadening some minds (including mine!)

Happyout

Realist

just came across this old thread. interesting topic.

asleif,

a) IQ tests are meant to primarily measure the abilities in math, logic, pattern recognition. these things are highly valued in western/european/technical societies. in other cultures they don't play any role.

the IQ test also do not at all predict how successful a person will be. the EQ is way more important in that respect.

b) a very gross estimate says that intelligence is dependant to 1/3 environment and 2/3 genetics. since education focuses a lot on math and computers people seem to get higher and higher IQ results. in this sense we can say the average person has better abilities in these fields than people 50 years ago.

c) since intelligence depends clearly on genetic factors it is very well possible (at this point neither proved nor disproved) that different ethnic groups have different average IQs. this is not more offensive than having different skin color etc.

logansrun

asleif,

So, are you one of those anthropologists who believes that there are no superior and inferior cultures? Personally, I feel -- subjectively -- that some cultures are superior to others. SHOCK!

Discuss.

Bradley

stillajwexelder

As a J-dud if I started talking about Elementary Particle Physics at a Witness picnic with fellow duds they just looked at me like I was nuts. Now, at a Mensa RG or picnic, if I bring up Inertial Reference Frames or Planck's Quantum Hypothesis I get some feedback. But I digress, The problem of measured intelligence will not be settled anytime soon. Maverick

Maverick yep - know what you mean -- when I say some of my heros are Max Planck, Heisenberg (uncertainty principle) , Schroedinger, Wolfgang Pauli (Paulis exclusion Principle -- you know --no 2 electrons can have the same set of quantum numbers), Aufbau - only at Albert Einstein does anybody know who I am even talking about - means I know quantum mechanics -does not make me intelligent

drwtsn32

Now, at a Mensa RG or picnic, if I bring up Inertial Reference Frames or Planck's Quantum Hypothesis I get some feedback.

You're fortunate. At our monthly Mensa meeting they usually talk about rebuilding old cars. I'd rather be discussing my quantum gravity theory.

Realist

drw,

hear hear! lets discuss your theory!

drwtsn32

Realist, the theory is complete, but I still need to spell check it... seriously, that's all that's preventing me from publishing my work.

Intelligence

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