Re: virus: Memes and Genes, stupid

owner-virus@maxwell.lucifer.com
Fri, 17 Jan 1997 17:07:31 -0700


On Thu, 16 Jan 1997, Martz wrote:

> Perhaps you'd like to support my new campaign.
>
> Free to forward, free to copy, free to mutate.
> ----------------------------------------------------------
[CLIP]
> The people with the most kids are the people with the least
> brains. This propogation of stupid genes carries the seed
> of mankinds destruction, yet it is dangerous to advocate the slaughter
> of the senseless. They outnumber us by a huge margin, after all, and
> are prone to using violence as a debating tool of first resort.
>
> I have a solution.
>
> NEUTER THE STUPID!

I have a problem with the direction this argument is taking. Not that
the stupid shouldn't be neutered (a fine idea), but it overlooks the data.
Statisticly two idiots are as likely to have genius offspring as two
geniuses are of having idiot children. The outcome will tend toward the
mean and therefore idiots are much more likely to have children whose
intellect is an improvement than the geniuses.

Both you and Dave Pape assume that intelligence is a wholely genetic
trait. I see no statistical evidence for this.

------------

Tim Rhodes
- no catchy tag line