tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post2970360324914380233..comments2024-03-28T17:44:11.289+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The high IQ 'sweet spots'Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-13011346507971106412012-07-24T20:56:02.558+01:002012-07-24T20:56:02.558+01:00jgress - I don't know the numbers. But if mort...jgress - I don't know the numbers. But if mortality falls in a highly 'random' fashion and on the very young, so that it becomes a 'lottery' then this favours large numbers of offspring (like frog spawn - zillions of fertilized eggs to produce two surviving frogs on average) - but if mortality is high but can be influenced by (eg) parental care, greater learning or planning etc - then it may tend to increase intelligence.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-40544870893958323612012-07-24T20:53:24.009+01:002012-07-24T20:53:24.009+01:00@JAD - More or less - there could be various mecha...@JAD - More or less - there could be various mechanisms. <br /><br />To simplify (the way I see it): through most of human history, fertility was 'irrelevant' because almost 1. everybody (except those suffering from disease) had considerably above-replacement fertility, but 2. almost all children died without themselves reproducing. <br /><br />Only those with favourable conditions had a reasonable chance of surviving. <br /><br />In some societies (only some) higher IQ increased childhood survival (probably by a variety of mechanisms) and higher IQ was selected for.<br /><br />High IQ individuals made various innovations which reduced mortality for everybody to the point that mortality was 'irrelevant' and most children born would survive to reproduce. <br /><br />IQ would then become a net disadvantage to reproductive success and IQ would decline - unless there were (one of two main mechanisms): social mechanisms favouring fertility of higher IQ; or social mechanisms differentially acting-against lower IQ (by increasing child mortality - which is what you are talking about, I think). <br /><br />But the main point of this post is that the high average and peak IQ which has been seen reaching its apex in some societies in the past few hundred years, is a 'sweet spot' - something that requires rather specific and likely-to-be-transient combinations of conditions. <br /><br />*<br /><br />Note - I roughly-estimate that the average intelligence in England a bit more than a century ago, was probably at the level of the top 10-15 percent of modern English - <br /><br />http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/taking-on-board-that-victorians-were.html<br /><br />Although I also expect that the standard deviation of intelligence (or at least of phenotypic, measurable intelligence) was greater in the past due to more malnutrition and disease.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-75076245529747210172012-07-24T19:06:16.934+01:002012-07-24T19:06:16.934+01:00For high IQ individuals to be higher fertility, ir...For high IQ individuals to be higher fertility, irresponsible breeding, characteristic of low IQ individuals, has to have bad consequences.<br /><br />In a number of societies, security was provided by males and through arrangements between males, thus women and children were provided with security and protection through their relationships with males, thus bastards and women who produced bastards tended to lack protection, resulting in enslavement or some intermediate less than free status, and/or high exposure to violence.<br /><br />This resulted in frequent bad behavior towards weak people, which was the initial justification that progressives employed for a strong interventionist state, with themselves managing it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-63905424415117486672012-07-23T23:40:55.495+01:002012-07-23T23:40:55.495+01:00Interesting, but it would be helpful if you could ...Interesting, but it would be helpful if you could explain the difference between high and very high mortality, since according to your theory the consequences are very different for the average intelligence of the population. Also, do you have any examples to support your hypothesis?jgresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03287009809340785879noreply@blogger.com