tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post5377817820507414748..comments2024-03-18T17:28:44.693-07:00Comments on Rondam Ramblings: Bigotry masquerading as scienceRonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11752242624438232184noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-20427405330058547242007-10-26T18:51:00.000-07:002007-10-26T18:51:00.000-07:00Congrats on your movie! Will it be possible to see...Congrats on your movie! Will it be possible to see it online?<BR/><BR/><BR/>Ron: <B>"IMO, the harm that would be done by acting on that hypothesis should it turn out to be mistaken is so great that it ought not be accepted even tentatively until it is proven beyond reasonable doubt."</B><BR/><BR/>We don't always have the luxury of knowing things for certain, and yet we have to make decisions. I denis biderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02662743799740973736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-66323132825430421802007-10-26T12:25:00.000-07:002007-10-26T12:25:00.000-07:00I've been meaning to write a long post addressing ...I've been meaning to write a long post addressing all these topics, but I haven't had time. (I'm premiering my movie tonight, and that's been keeping me busy.) Just a few off-the-cuff remarks:<BR/><BR/><I>Yes, the "winter" hypothesis is a hypothesis, it is not fact. But that doesn't mean that the mechanism and reasons are less likely to be genetic.</I><BR/><BR/>Doesn't matter. IMO, the harm Ronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14719368822663798864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-85050033316934116862007-10-26T08:33:00.000-07:002007-10-26T08:33:00.000-07:00Ron: "That is a plausible hypothesis, but there is...Ron: <B>"That is a plausible hypothesis, but there is no evidence to support it. An alternative hypothesis is that drought, not winter, is the driving factor, which would predict that blacks should be more intelligent than whites. There is no evidence to support that hypothesis either."</B><BR/><BR/>I don't have data on droughts. Have droughts been a driving factor of evolution that have denis biderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02662743799740973736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-38366636365178413212007-10-19T11:45:00.000-07:002007-10-19T11:45:00.000-07:00See, Denis, you've missed the point. Ron has been...See, Denis, you've missed the point. Ron has been very careful in his writings to object to the bigotry, not the science.<BR/><BR/>It is likely true that various inbreeding subpopulations of humans evolved somewhat different average IQs over the past 100,000 years. It is also likely true that this is at least a partial explanation for cultural achievements in the past few thousand years (along Don Geddishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14921093108555061757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-55912028350625401502007-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:002007-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00the concurrent evolution of skin color and intelli...<I>the concurrent evolution of skin color and intelligence can clearly be related to the fact that the absence of winter does not require long-term planning, whereas the presence of winter does.</I><BR/><BR/>That is a plausible hypothesis, but there is no evidence to support it. An alternative hypothesis is that drought, not winter, is the driving factor, which would predict that blacks should Ronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14719368822663798864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-8746486815350485852007-10-19T08:40:00.000-07:002007-10-19T08:40:00.000-07:00*sigh*You people are so utterly disappointing. Her...*sigh*<BR/><BR/>You people are so utterly disappointing. Here in this blog entry, you are being the PC police at their worst.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Differences_in_Intelligence" REL="nofollow">Here you go</A>, to shed some real-world data on the topic.<BR/><BR/>Ron: the concurrent evolution of skin color and intelligence can clearly be related to the fact that the denis biderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02662743799740973736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-12948832295737632302007-10-18T18:24:00.000-07:002007-10-18T18:24:00.000-07:00Ron,I had exactly the same reaction as you. In hi...Ron,<BR/><BR/>I had exactly the same reaction as you. In his written words, Watson says some very careful, non-PC, uncomfortable truths. And I generally support the difficult things on race and IQ that he writes about.<BR/><BR/>Sadly, in his interviews he reveals that he's really just a racist bigot.<BR/><BR/>Reminds me of a Daniel Dennett quote: "There is nothing I like less than bad argumentsDon Geddishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14921093108555061757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-78395115881569316762007-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:002007-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:00couple more quick thoughts.i think an aspect of hu...couple more quick thoughts.<BR/><BR/>i think an aspect of human travel and race-integration that is particularly exciting is that as all of our separate populations (i.e. separately evolved for thousands of years) come back together, we have the chance now to start sharing genes and traits among different races/populations who never had the evolutionary need to develop those genes/traits when joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09879498627753039120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-51129425378373464312007-10-18T10:12:00.000-07:002007-10-18T10:12:00.000-07:00yeah, i know - i'm not attempting to tie brain evo...yeah, i know - i'm not attempting to tie brain evolution to skin color. Plus, by only focusing on skin color, you're missing our on a lot of other biological traits that most definitely were driven by evolution, for whatever reason - Africans, in addition to dark skin color, are tall and slender (because of the way they hunted? i dunno). Inuits are short and stocky, presumably to maintain heat. joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09879498627753039120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-27754314594974367102007-10-17T22:58:00.000-07:002007-10-17T22:58:00.000-07:00If evolution of the brain occurred because of muta...<I>If evolution of the brain occurred because of mutations or traits that made people smarter, I think it is fair to assume that when humans started spreading, their (our) brains evolved and changed just like our bodies did.</I><BR/><BR/>Of course. But there is no reason to believe that the evolutionary pressures that drove brain evolution are in any way related to the evolutionary pressures Ronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14719368822663798864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592542.post-60065463313543252092007-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:002007-10-17T19:16:00.000-07:00W/R/T: "it is possible (though very unlikely) that...W/R/T: "it is possible (though very unlikely) that the genes that affect intelligence are somehow correlated with the genes that control skin color."<BR/><BR/>Now i'm no geneticist, so I'm just talking out of my ass here (kind of like you are, i think), but I don't think this "finding" would link intelligence to skin color <I>per se</I>, but rather link intelligence to the overall evolution of joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09879498627753039120noreply@blogger.com