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How much smarter would bred humans become?
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I'm building a setting in a fictional Latin American country which is under military rule. The junta starts a breeding program in the late 40's with help from unscrupulous escaped Nazi scientists.
Assuming the breeding program starts with a population of 10,000 people with an average IQ of around 130, how much could could they raise the IQ in 5 generations?
45-60 => 1st, 60-75 => 2nd, 75-90=> 3rd, 90-05 => 4th, 06-? =>5th
The constraints are as below:
- There is a fund for keeping 10,000 people in the program only.
- No genetic engineering or any other other biological experiments.
- Children who don't fit the program's eugenic goals are given for adoption into selected couples of the general population.
- Scientists running the program decide who will breed with who. For example they could keep 10% of the boys and 90% of the girls if that gives them best results. All the other children are given for adoption to selected couples.
- The country has around 30 million people, the bred are very small part of it.
Note: (story related; might not be relevant to the question)
If it helps, my story happens in present age. The country finally democratizes and holds fair elections. The newly-elected president finds out about the secret breeding program. He also learns that the children given for adoption from the program are vastly over-represented among the country business & cognitive elite compared with their meager numbers.
science-based biology modern-age intelligence herd
edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
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I'm building a setting in a fictional Latin American country which is under military rule. The junta starts a breeding program in the late 40's with help from unscrupulous escaped Nazi scientists.
Assuming the breeding program starts with a population of 10,000 people with an average IQ of around 130, how much could could they raise the IQ in 5 generations?
45-60 => 1st, 60-75 => 2nd, 75-90=> 3rd, 90-05 => 4th, 06-? =>5th
The constraints are as below:
- There is a fund for keeping 10,000 people in the program only.
- No genetic engineering or any other other biological experiments.
- Children who don't fit the program's eugenic goals are given for adoption into selected couples of the general population.
- Scientists running the program decide who will breed with who. For example they could keep 10% of the boys and 90% of the girls if that gives them best results. All the other children are given for adoption to selected couples.
- The country has around 30 million people, the bred are very small part of it.
Note: (story related; might not be relevant to the question)
If it helps, my story happens in present age. The country finally democratizes and holds fair elections. The newly-elected president finds out about the secret breeding program. He also learns that the children given for adoption from the program are vastly over-represented among the country business & cognitive elite compared with their meager numbers.
science-based biology modern-age intelligence herd
edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
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Geonosis is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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2
IQ scores are weighted such that 100 is the median score. After 5 generations, 100 will still be the median, it will just mean something different.
– F1Krazy
2 hours ago
@F1Krazy Compared to the general population which is 100. The bred humans are few in numbers compared with around 30 millions normal humans.
– Geonosis
2 hours ago
Are the families the children are adopted to more socio-economically stable then the average family? If so, that can have a bigger impact then anything genetics brings to the table.
– JGreenwell
1 hour ago
@JGreenwell The program excludes poor and/or problematic families (criminals, unhealthy, socialists etc). Beside that children are placed in childless families that are looking for adoption which could provide financial stability and opportunity for education.
– Geonosis
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
4
down vote
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up vote
4
down vote
favorite
I'm building a setting in a fictional Latin American country which is under military rule. The junta starts a breeding program in the late 40's with help from unscrupulous escaped Nazi scientists.
Assuming the breeding program starts with a population of 10,000 people with an average IQ of around 130, how much could could they raise the IQ in 5 generations?
45-60 => 1st, 60-75 => 2nd, 75-90=> 3rd, 90-05 => 4th, 06-? =>5th
The constraints are as below:
- There is a fund for keeping 10,000 people in the program only.
- No genetic engineering or any other other biological experiments.
- Children who don't fit the program's eugenic goals are given for adoption into selected couples of the general population.
- Scientists running the program decide who will breed with who. For example they could keep 10% of the boys and 90% of the girls if that gives them best results. All the other children are given for adoption to selected couples.
- The country has around 30 million people, the bred are very small part of it.
Note: (story related; might not be relevant to the question)
If it helps, my story happens in present age. The country finally democratizes and holds fair elections. The newly-elected president finds out about the secret breeding program. He also learns that the children given for adoption from the program are vastly over-represented among the country business & cognitive elite compared with their meager numbers.
science-based biology modern-age intelligence herd
edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
New contributor
Geonosis is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I'm building a setting in a fictional Latin American country which is under military rule. The junta starts a breeding program in the late 40's with help from unscrupulous escaped Nazi scientists.
Assuming the breeding program starts with a population of 10,000 people with an average IQ of around 130, how much could could they raise the IQ in 5 generations?
45-60 => 1st, 60-75 => 2nd, 75-90=> 3rd, 90-05 => 4th, 06-? =>5th
The constraints are as below:
- There is a fund for keeping 10,000 people in the program only.
- No genetic engineering or any other other biological experiments.
- Children who don't fit the program's eugenic goals are given for adoption into selected couples of the general population.
- Scientists running the program decide who will breed with who. For example they could keep 10% of the boys and 90% of the girls if that gives them best results. All the other children are given for adoption to selected couples.
- The country has around 30 million people, the bred are very small part of it.
Note: (story related; might not be relevant to the question)
If it helps, my story happens in present age. The country finally democratizes and holds fair elections. The newly-elected president finds out about the secret breeding program. He also learns that the children given for adoption from the program are vastly over-represented among the country business & cognitive elite compared with their meager numbers.
science-based biology modern-age intelligence herd
science-based biology modern-age intelligence herd
edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
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edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
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edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
edited 2 hours ago
Frostfyre
17.5k963125
17.5k963125
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
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asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
asked 2 hours ago
Geonosis
234
234
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New contributor
Geonosis is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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2
IQ scores are weighted such that 100 is the median score. After 5 generations, 100 will still be the median, it will just mean something different.
– F1Krazy
2 hours ago
@F1Krazy Compared to the general population which is 100. The bred humans are few in numbers compared with around 30 millions normal humans.
– Geonosis
2 hours ago
Are the families the children are adopted to more socio-economically stable then the average family? If so, that can have a bigger impact then anything genetics brings to the table.
– JGreenwell
1 hour ago
@JGreenwell The program excludes poor and/or problematic families (criminals, unhealthy, socialists etc). Beside that children are placed in childless families that are looking for adoption which could provide financial stability and opportunity for education.
– Geonosis
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
2
IQ scores are weighted such that 100 is the median score. After 5 generations, 100 will still be the median, it will just mean something different.
– F1Krazy
2 hours ago
@F1Krazy Compared to the general population which is 100. The bred humans are few in numbers compared with around 30 millions normal humans.
– Geonosis
2 hours ago
Are the families the children are adopted to more socio-economically stable then the average family? If so, that can have a bigger impact then anything genetics brings to the table.
– JGreenwell
1 hour ago
@JGreenwell The program excludes poor and/or problematic families (criminals, unhealthy, socialists etc). Beside that children are placed in childless families that are looking for adoption which could provide financial stability and opportunity for education.
– Geonosis
1 hour ago
2
2
IQ scores are weighted such that 100 is the median score. After 5 generations, 100 will still be the median, it will just mean something different.
– F1Krazy
2 hours ago
IQ scores are weighted such that 100 is the median score. After 5 generations, 100 will still be the median, it will just mean something different.
– F1Krazy
2 hours ago
@F1Krazy Compared to the general population which is 100. The bred humans are few in numbers compared with around 30 millions normal humans.
– Geonosis
2 hours ago
@F1Krazy Compared to the general population which is 100. The bred humans are few in numbers compared with around 30 millions normal humans.
– Geonosis
2 hours ago
Are the families the children are adopted to more socio-economically stable then the average family? If so, that can have a bigger impact then anything genetics brings to the table.
– JGreenwell
1 hour ago
Are the families the children are adopted to more socio-economically stable then the average family? If so, that can have a bigger impact then anything genetics brings to the table.
– JGreenwell
1 hour ago
@JGreenwell The program excludes poor and/or problematic families (criminals, unhealthy, socialists etc). Beside that children are placed in childless families that are looking for adoption which could provide financial stability and opportunity for education.
– Geonosis
1 hour ago
@JGreenwell The program excludes poor and/or problematic families (criminals, unhealthy, socialists etc). Beside that children are placed in childless families that are looking for adoption which could provide financial stability and opportunity for education.
– Geonosis
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
4 Answers
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accepted
Since as far as I know nobody bred humans, we can't tell for sure, so take below answer as pop scientific. It's using the breeder equation and regression to the mean.
Assuming that that average IQ of the population that outliers are drawn is 100 IQ, heritability is 50%, and that with each generation it gets 20% harder to become outlier:
1st generation
Avg 100, Growth 1.3, Outliers = 130 (100 * 1.3),
100 + ((130 - 100) * 0.5) = 115
2nd generation
Avg 115, Growth 1.24 (1.3 *0.8), Outliers = 143 (115 * 1.24),
3rd generation
Avg 128.8, Growth 1.192 (1.24 *0.8), Outliers = 154 (128.8 * 1.192),
4th generation
Avg 141, Outliers 163
5th generation
Avg 152, Outliers 171
Tweak heritability (0.5) & decay (80%), and average IQ of your founding stock population for your story telling purposes needs.
P.S.
Given that 3rd Generation average has enough IQ to graduate at MIT, and outliers could become professors there, the IQ is not a problem anymore.
Your country is constrained by other factors such as culture,
lack of capital, research facilities, high-tech industry etc. So most likely majority of your bred geniuses would end up leaving your middle income country and emigrate to some rich western country.
Read Garret Jones Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own to see the issue.
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
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You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
2
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is not a singular trait
There are many facets to intelligence. Let's start with some animal examples:
Dogs.
Everybody loves dogs and dogs love everybody. They have incredible social skills and are amazingly adapted to humans. They are the only domesticated animal that runs towards their "human" when frightened and not away. They can read human facial expression naturally. Even most apes have to learn that pointing towards something is not you just randomly raising your arms, but dogs instinctively look where you are pointing (if they trust you) as they understand the gesture.
When it comes to technical/mechanical understanding dogs are incredibly bad. Dogs are barely capable of solving mechanical puzzles to get their treats. They can follow commands to solve it, but they lack the capabilities of solving it on their own.
Dogs are very cooperative. They are very social amongst one another and with humans and can cooperate to achieve a common goal - like hunting. The main reason we bred dogs from wolves, originally.
Birds
Birds are the exact opposite of dogs regarding the two aspects I highlighted. Crows, for example, can solve mechanical puzzles of several steps to secure their prized treats, but they are absolutely incapable of cooperation. When two birds are sitting in front of a see-through box with treats and a lever they can pull connected to the box, they will quickly find out they can lift the box to reach the treats, but each bird realises it can not reach the treats while it pulls the lever. So they stop. They could cooperate, one pulls the lever, the other one pulls out the treats, but they will not. Each bird is just thinking of "how can I get the treat?". Cooperation is not engrained in their psychology.
IQ Tests
What we usually refer to as intelligence with humans is mathematical and geometrical understanding. That is what IQ tests are going for in most cases, too.
"Here is a sketch of body X. Draw it rotated 90° to the right." Questions like this are aiming for a persons spatial understanding.
IQ tests are just a rough estimation of a person's skills. They are everything but a precise measurement of intelligence. Intelligence is an abstract concept with many facets that can not be expressed in a singular number. Simply do a second IQ test right after your first and your score will be higher. Just because you know what to expect of the questions you will be quicker and more secure in your decisions. You will not have been getting more intelligent by doing a single IQ test.
Now to the main question.
Could intelligence be bred?
Yes, basically any trait could be artificially selected for. It is more likely for two people with a very healthy and fit body to have children that are more prone to having healthy and fit body. (Same goes for unhealthy, btw.) If you have two people who are strong exhibitors of any trait it is likely that their offspring will be carrying that trait, too.
Intelligence is not a singular trait. There are a many influencing factors, genetically speaking. People with genetic defects like Down-Syndrom can still be perfectly functional humans, but it is significantly less likely for them to be above average in most things they do.
Other factors like high testosterone, estrogen and other hormone levels influence a person's tendencies and traits, too. Every hormone differently and there are always strong exceptions. Biochemistry is the most difficult thing to model precisly.
Does it suffice to just start a colony of intelligent people?
Not necessarily, no. Just because somebody is smart, does not mean they are a good parent. While many traits like physical prowess thrive on exercise, so does intelligence. It is extremely unlikely to grow up to be intelligent, when you have never had any nurturing of this skill. The human brain and body build what they need. When a child's mind is never given any intellectual input, why would it develop a skill to interpret such input?
The intelligent parents' DNA just makes it more likely that the child is going to be good at building up intelligence. If it is never given an opportunity to build it up it will not use that potential.
What you need
...is a program that selects compatible intelligent people and makes sure that they are raised well, including a healthy home enviroment and parental attention. Early education is important. Focus all of the education and attention on rewarding intellectual skill. This means lots of challenging games from a young age one in which the children can hone their skills. If you want them having a healthy psyche it should always be focussing on rewarding progress instead of demanding progress, the latter works to but comes with side effects I'll talk about below.
An important side note
While you could also create socially incapable, semi-autistic people with a very high IQ with less effort, by ignoring the "healthy" part I mentioned, I would personally advise against it as the people might have advanced skill sets, but their lack of social skills would make it more difficult for these skills to be applied in a productive context.
Besides that, it would also be child abuse. Not too fond of that.
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
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Intelligence is heritable
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-intelligence-hereditary/
Scientists have investigated this question for more than a century, and the answer is clear: the differences between people on intelligence tests are substantially the result of genetic differences.
But...
We are talking about average differences among people and not about individuals.
And...
Any one person's intelligence might be blown off course from its genetic potential by, for example, an illness in childhood.
Still...
we know, for example, that later in life, children adopted away from their biological parents at birth are just as similar to their biological parents as are children reared by their biological parents.
Bottom line
You'll need to perform selective breeding, "just" as farmers breed plants, ranchers breed cattle, and rich people breed dogs.
However
we can't answer how much smarter they'd be.
Caveat
High intelligence correlates to higher rates of mental illness.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/
The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7 percent) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20 percent reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10 percent for each.
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
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0
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You can definitely train for ability to score highly in IQ tests, so you should be able to breed for it. That's not going to make anybody "smarter" - all it will do is increase the ability to score highly on IQ tests. Even Mensa agrees that IQ is only an indicator of intelligence or ability to problem solve*
As pointed out by @F1Krazy, your group's median IQ will remain 100, but you will be able to raise median IQ as compared with outside the group, as even with the inclusion of environments less conducive to IQ, the improvement over time has been positive (see Flynn Effect) so providing an environment conducive to learning, personal development and support and an improvement in health should all contribute.
*I've been a member of Mensa for maybe 20 years and can categorically state that high IQ is not a consistent indicator of anything other than getting high scores in the Mensa test. Membership includes heads of business, unemployed plumbers, musicians, mathematicians...
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
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4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
4 Answers
4
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
Since as far as I know nobody bred humans, we can't tell for sure, so take below answer as pop scientific. It's using the breeder equation and regression to the mean.
Assuming that that average IQ of the population that outliers are drawn is 100 IQ, heritability is 50%, and that with each generation it gets 20% harder to become outlier:
1st generation
Avg 100, Growth 1.3, Outliers = 130 (100 * 1.3),
100 + ((130 - 100) * 0.5) = 115
2nd generation
Avg 115, Growth 1.24 (1.3 *0.8), Outliers = 143 (115 * 1.24),
3rd generation
Avg 128.8, Growth 1.192 (1.24 *0.8), Outliers = 154 (128.8 * 1.192),
4th generation
Avg 141, Outliers 163
5th generation
Avg 152, Outliers 171
Tweak heritability (0.5) & decay (80%), and average IQ of your founding stock population for your story telling purposes needs.
P.S.
Given that 3rd Generation average has enough IQ to graduate at MIT, and outliers could become professors there, the IQ is not a problem anymore.
Your country is constrained by other factors such as culture,
lack of capital, research facilities, high-tech industry etc. So most likely majority of your bred geniuses would end up leaving your middle income country and emigrate to some rich western country.
Read Garret Jones Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own to see the issue.
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
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You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
2
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
Since as far as I know nobody bred humans, we can't tell for sure, so take below answer as pop scientific. It's using the breeder equation and regression to the mean.
Assuming that that average IQ of the population that outliers are drawn is 100 IQ, heritability is 50%, and that with each generation it gets 20% harder to become outlier:
1st generation
Avg 100, Growth 1.3, Outliers = 130 (100 * 1.3),
100 + ((130 - 100) * 0.5) = 115
2nd generation
Avg 115, Growth 1.24 (1.3 *0.8), Outliers = 143 (115 * 1.24),
3rd generation
Avg 128.8, Growth 1.192 (1.24 *0.8), Outliers = 154 (128.8 * 1.192),
4th generation
Avg 141, Outliers 163
5th generation
Avg 152, Outliers 171
Tweak heritability (0.5) & decay (80%), and average IQ of your founding stock population for your story telling purposes needs.
P.S.
Given that 3rd Generation average has enough IQ to graduate at MIT, and outliers could become professors there, the IQ is not a problem anymore.
Your country is constrained by other factors such as culture,
lack of capital, research facilities, high-tech industry etc. So most likely majority of your bred geniuses would end up leaving your middle income country and emigrate to some rich western country.
Read Garret Jones Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own to see the issue.
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
New contributor
Taco is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
2
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
Since as far as I know nobody bred humans, we can't tell for sure, so take below answer as pop scientific. It's using the breeder equation and regression to the mean.
Assuming that that average IQ of the population that outliers are drawn is 100 IQ, heritability is 50%, and that with each generation it gets 20% harder to become outlier:
1st generation
Avg 100, Growth 1.3, Outliers = 130 (100 * 1.3),
100 + ((130 - 100) * 0.5) = 115
2nd generation
Avg 115, Growth 1.24 (1.3 *0.8), Outliers = 143 (115 * 1.24),
3rd generation
Avg 128.8, Growth 1.192 (1.24 *0.8), Outliers = 154 (128.8 * 1.192),
4th generation
Avg 141, Outliers 163
5th generation
Avg 152, Outliers 171
Tweak heritability (0.5) & decay (80%), and average IQ of your founding stock population for your story telling purposes needs.
P.S.
Given that 3rd Generation average has enough IQ to graduate at MIT, and outliers could become professors there, the IQ is not a problem anymore.
Your country is constrained by other factors such as culture,
lack of capital, research facilities, high-tech industry etc. So most likely majority of your bred geniuses would end up leaving your middle income country and emigrate to some rich western country.
Read Garret Jones Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own to see the issue.
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
New contributor
Taco is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Since as far as I know nobody bred humans, we can't tell for sure, so take below answer as pop scientific. It's using the breeder equation and regression to the mean.
Assuming that that average IQ of the population that outliers are drawn is 100 IQ, heritability is 50%, and that with each generation it gets 20% harder to become outlier:
1st generation
Avg 100, Growth 1.3, Outliers = 130 (100 * 1.3),
100 + ((130 - 100) * 0.5) = 115
2nd generation
Avg 115, Growth 1.24 (1.3 *0.8), Outliers = 143 (115 * 1.24),
3rd generation
Avg 128.8, Growth 1.192 (1.24 *0.8), Outliers = 154 (128.8 * 1.192),
4th generation
Avg 141, Outliers 163
5th generation
Avg 152, Outliers 171
Tweak heritability (0.5) & decay (80%), and average IQ of your founding stock population for your story telling purposes needs.
P.S.
Given that 3rd Generation average has enough IQ to graduate at MIT, and outliers could become professors there, the IQ is not a problem anymore.
Your country is constrained by other factors such as culture,
lack of capital, research facilities, high-tech industry etc. So most likely majority of your bred geniuses would end up leaving your middle income country and emigrate to some rich western country.
Read Garret Jones Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own to see the issue.
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
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edited 14 mins ago
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
New contributor
Taco is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
answered 37 mins ago
Taco
243
243
New contributor
Taco is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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New contributor
Taco is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Taco is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
2
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
add a comment |Â
You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
2
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
You don't assume average IQ is 100, average IQ is defined as 100. It's a normalised value.
– Separatrix
30 mins ago
2
2
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
@Separatrix Breeding stock might be drawn from subpopulation with higher IQ, for example 95% are normal ratbertians and 5% are smart merchant minorty dogbertians.IQ for the country is 100, but since your founding stock is dogbertian based, you have to start with their average IQ.
– Taco
18 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is not a singular trait
There are many facets to intelligence. Let's start with some animal examples:
Dogs.
Everybody loves dogs and dogs love everybody. They have incredible social skills and are amazingly adapted to humans. They are the only domesticated animal that runs towards their "human" when frightened and not away. They can read human facial expression naturally. Even most apes have to learn that pointing towards something is not you just randomly raising your arms, but dogs instinctively look where you are pointing (if they trust you) as they understand the gesture.
When it comes to technical/mechanical understanding dogs are incredibly bad. Dogs are barely capable of solving mechanical puzzles to get their treats. They can follow commands to solve it, but they lack the capabilities of solving it on their own.
Dogs are very cooperative. They are very social amongst one another and with humans and can cooperate to achieve a common goal - like hunting. The main reason we bred dogs from wolves, originally.
Birds
Birds are the exact opposite of dogs regarding the two aspects I highlighted. Crows, for example, can solve mechanical puzzles of several steps to secure their prized treats, but they are absolutely incapable of cooperation. When two birds are sitting in front of a see-through box with treats and a lever they can pull connected to the box, they will quickly find out they can lift the box to reach the treats, but each bird realises it can not reach the treats while it pulls the lever. So they stop. They could cooperate, one pulls the lever, the other one pulls out the treats, but they will not. Each bird is just thinking of "how can I get the treat?". Cooperation is not engrained in their psychology.
IQ Tests
What we usually refer to as intelligence with humans is mathematical and geometrical understanding. That is what IQ tests are going for in most cases, too.
"Here is a sketch of body X. Draw it rotated 90° to the right." Questions like this are aiming for a persons spatial understanding.
IQ tests are just a rough estimation of a person's skills. They are everything but a precise measurement of intelligence. Intelligence is an abstract concept with many facets that can not be expressed in a singular number. Simply do a second IQ test right after your first and your score will be higher. Just because you know what to expect of the questions you will be quicker and more secure in your decisions. You will not have been getting more intelligent by doing a single IQ test.
Now to the main question.
Could intelligence be bred?
Yes, basically any trait could be artificially selected for. It is more likely for two people with a very healthy and fit body to have children that are more prone to having healthy and fit body. (Same goes for unhealthy, btw.) If you have two people who are strong exhibitors of any trait it is likely that their offspring will be carrying that trait, too.
Intelligence is not a singular trait. There are a many influencing factors, genetically speaking. People with genetic defects like Down-Syndrom can still be perfectly functional humans, but it is significantly less likely for them to be above average in most things they do.
Other factors like high testosterone, estrogen and other hormone levels influence a person's tendencies and traits, too. Every hormone differently and there are always strong exceptions. Biochemistry is the most difficult thing to model precisly.
Does it suffice to just start a colony of intelligent people?
Not necessarily, no. Just because somebody is smart, does not mean they are a good parent. While many traits like physical prowess thrive on exercise, so does intelligence. It is extremely unlikely to grow up to be intelligent, when you have never had any nurturing of this skill. The human brain and body build what they need. When a child's mind is never given any intellectual input, why would it develop a skill to interpret such input?
The intelligent parents' DNA just makes it more likely that the child is going to be good at building up intelligence. If it is never given an opportunity to build it up it will not use that potential.
What you need
...is a program that selects compatible intelligent people and makes sure that they are raised well, including a healthy home enviroment and parental attention. Early education is important. Focus all of the education and attention on rewarding intellectual skill. This means lots of challenging games from a young age one in which the children can hone their skills. If you want them having a healthy psyche it should always be focussing on rewarding progress instead of demanding progress, the latter works to but comes with side effects I'll talk about below.
An important side note
While you could also create socially incapable, semi-autistic people with a very high IQ with less effort, by ignoring the "healthy" part I mentioned, I would personally advise against it as the people might have advanced skill sets, but their lack of social skills would make it more difficult for these skills to be applied in a productive context.
Besides that, it would also be child abuse. Not too fond of that.
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is not a singular trait
There are many facets to intelligence. Let's start with some animal examples:
Dogs.
Everybody loves dogs and dogs love everybody. They have incredible social skills and are amazingly adapted to humans. They are the only domesticated animal that runs towards their "human" when frightened and not away. They can read human facial expression naturally. Even most apes have to learn that pointing towards something is not you just randomly raising your arms, but dogs instinctively look where you are pointing (if they trust you) as they understand the gesture.
When it comes to technical/mechanical understanding dogs are incredibly bad. Dogs are barely capable of solving mechanical puzzles to get their treats. They can follow commands to solve it, but they lack the capabilities of solving it on their own.
Dogs are very cooperative. They are very social amongst one another and with humans and can cooperate to achieve a common goal - like hunting. The main reason we bred dogs from wolves, originally.
Birds
Birds are the exact opposite of dogs regarding the two aspects I highlighted. Crows, for example, can solve mechanical puzzles of several steps to secure their prized treats, but they are absolutely incapable of cooperation. When two birds are sitting in front of a see-through box with treats and a lever they can pull connected to the box, they will quickly find out they can lift the box to reach the treats, but each bird realises it can not reach the treats while it pulls the lever. So they stop. They could cooperate, one pulls the lever, the other one pulls out the treats, but they will not. Each bird is just thinking of "how can I get the treat?". Cooperation is not engrained in their psychology.
IQ Tests
What we usually refer to as intelligence with humans is mathematical and geometrical understanding. That is what IQ tests are going for in most cases, too.
"Here is a sketch of body X. Draw it rotated 90° to the right." Questions like this are aiming for a persons spatial understanding.
IQ tests are just a rough estimation of a person's skills. They are everything but a precise measurement of intelligence. Intelligence is an abstract concept with many facets that can not be expressed in a singular number. Simply do a second IQ test right after your first and your score will be higher. Just because you know what to expect of the questions you will be quicker and more secure in your decisions. You will not have been getting more intelligent by doing a single IQ test.
Now to the main question.
Could intelligence be bred?
Yes, basically any trait could be artificially selected for. It is more likely for two people with a very healthy and fit body to have children that are more prone to having healthy and fit body. (Same goes for unhealthy, btw.) If you have two people who are strong exhibitors of any trait it is likely that their offspring will be carrying that trait, too.
Intelligence is not a singular trait. There are a many influencing factors, genetically speaking. People with genetic defects like Down-Syndrom can still be perfectly functional humans, but it is significantly less likely for them to be above average in most things they do.
Other factors like high testosterone, estrogen and other hormone levels influence a person's tendencies and traits, too. Every hormone differently and there are always strong exceptions. Biochemistry is the most difficult thing to model precisly.
Does it suffice to just start a colony of intelligent people?
Not necessarily, no. Just because somebody is smart, does not mean they are a good parent. While many traits like physical prowess thrive on exercise, so does intelligence. It is extremely unlikely to grow up to be intelligent, when you have never had any nurturing of this skill. The human brain and body build what they need. When a child's mind is never given any intellectual input, why would it develop a skill to interpret such input?
The intelligent parents' DNA just makes it more likely that the child is going to be good at building up intelligence. If it is never given an opportunity to build it up it will not use that potential.
What you need
...is a program that selects compatible intelligent people and makes sure that they are raised well, including a healthy home enviroment and parental attention. Early education is important. Focus all of the education and attention on rewarding intellectual skill. This means lots of challenging games from a young age one in which the children can hone their skills. If you want them having a healthy psyche it should always be focussing on rewarding progress instead of demanding progress, the latter works to but comes with side effects I'll talk about below.
An important side note
While you could also create socially incapable, semi-autistic people with a very high IQ with less effort, by ignoring the "healthy" part I mentioned, I would personally advise against it as the people might have advanced skill sets, but their lack of social skills would make it more difficult for these skills to be applied in a productive context.
Besides that, it would also be child abuse. Not too fond of that.
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is not a singular trait
There are many facets to intelligence. Let's start with some animal examples:
Dogs.
Everybody loves dogs and dogs love everybody. They have incredible social skills and are amazingly adapted to humans. They are the only domesticated animal that runs towards their "human" when frightened and not away. They can read human facial expression naturally. Even most apes have to learn that pointing towards something is not you just randomly raising your arms, but dogs instinctively look where you are pointing (if they trust you) as they understand the gesture.
When it comes to technical/mechanical understanding dogs are incredibly bad. Dogs are barely capable of solving mechanical puzzles to get their treats. They can follow commands to solve it, but they lack the capabilities of solving it on their own.
Dogs are very cooperative. They are very social amongst one another and with humans and can cooperate to achieve a common goal - like hunting. The main reason we bred dogs from wolves, originally.
Birds
Birds are the exact opposite of dogs regarding the two aspects I highlighted. Crows, for example, can solve mechanical puzzles of several steps to secure their prized treats, but they are absolutely incapable of cooperation. When two birds are sitting in front of a see-through box with treats and a lever they can pull connected to the box, they will quickly find out they can lift the box to reach the treats, but each bird realises it can not reach the treats while it pulls the lever. So they stop. They could cooperate, one pulls the lever, the other one pulls out the treats, but they will not. Each bird is just thinking of "how can I get the treat?". Cooperation is not engrained in their psychology.
IQ Tests
What we usually refer to as intelligence with humans is mathematical and geometrical understanding. That is what IQ tests are going for in most cases, too.
"Here is a sketch of body X. Draw it rotated 90° to the right." Questions like this are aiming for a persons spatial understanding.
IQ tests are just a rough estimation of a person's skills. They are everything but a precise measurement of intelligence. Intelligence is an abstract concept with many facets that can not be expressed in a singular number. Simply do a second IQ test right after your first and your score will be higher. Just because you know what to expect of the questions you will be quicker and more secure in your decisions. You will not have been getting more intelligent by doing a single IQ test.
Now to the main question.
Could intelligence be bred?
Yes, basically any trait could be artificially selected for. It is more likely for two people with a very healthy and fit body to have children that are more prone to having healthy and fit body. (Same goes for unhealthy, btw.) If you have two people who are strong exhibitors of any trait it is likely that their offspring will be carrying that trait, too.
Intelligence is not a singular trait. There are a many influencing factors, genetically speaking. People with genetic defects like Down-Syndrom can still be perfectly functional humans, but it is significantly less likely for them to be above average in most things they do.
Other factors like high testosterone, estrogen and other hormone levels influence a person's tendencies and traits, too. Every hormone differently and there are always strong exceptions. Biochemistry is the most difficult thing to model precisly.
Does it suffice to just start a colony of intelligent people?
Not necessarily, no. Just because somebody is smart, does not mean they are a good parent. While many traits like physical prowess thrive on exercise, so does intelligence. It is extremely unlikely to grow up to be intelligent, when you have never had any nurturing of this skill. The human brain and body build what they need. When a child's mind is never given any intellectual input, why would it develop a skill to interpret such input?
The intelligent parents' DNA just makes it more likely that the child is going to be good at building up intelligence. If it is never given an opportunity to build it up it will not use that potential.
What you need
...is a program that selects compatible intelligent people and makes sure that they are raised well, including a healthy home enviroment and parental attention. Early education is important. Focus all of the education and attention on rewarding intellectual skill. This means lots of challenging games from a young age one in which the children can hone their skills. If you want them having a healthy psyche it should always be focussing on rewarding progress instead of demanding progress, the latter works to but comes with side effects I'll talk about below.
An important side note
While you could also create socially incapable, semi-autistic people with a very high IQ with less effort, by ignoring the "healthy" part I mentioned, I would personally advise against it as the people might have advanced skill sets, but their lack of social skills would make it more difficult for these skills to be applied in a productive context.
Besides that, it would also be child abuse. Not too fond of that.
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
Intelligence is not a singular trait
There are many facets to intelligence. Let's start with some animal examples:
Dogs.
Everybody loves dogs and dogs love everybody. They have incredible social skills and are amazingly adapted to humans. They are the only domesticated animal that runs towards their "human" when frightened and not away. They can read human facial expression naturally. Even most apes have to learn that pointing towards something is not you just randomly raising your arms, but dogs instinctively look where you are pointing (if they trust you) as they understand the gesture.
When it comes to technical/mechanical understanding dogs are incredibly bad. Dogs are barely capable of solving mechanical puzzles to get their treats. They can follow commands to solve it, but they lack the capabilities of solving it on their own.
Dogs are very cooperative. They are very social amongst one another and with humans and can cooperate to achieve a common goal - like hunting. The main reason we bred dogs from wolves, originally.
Birds
Birds are the exact opposite of dogs regarding the two aspects I highlighted. Crows, for example, can solve mechanical puzzles of several steps to secure their prized treats, but they are absolutely incapable of cooperation. When two birds are sitting in front of a see-through box with treats and a lever they can pull connected to the box, they will quickly find out they can lift the box to reach the treats, but each bird realises it can not reach the treats while it pulls the lever. So they stop. They could cooperate, one pulls the lever, the other one pulls out the treats, but they will not. Each bird is just thinking of "how can I get the treat?". Cooperation is not engrained in their psychology.
IQ Tests
What we usually refer to as intelligence with humans is mathematical and geometrical understanding. That is what IQ tests are going for in most cases, too.
"Here is a sketch of body X. Draw it rotated 90° to the right." Questions like this are aiming for a persons spatial understanding.
IQ tests are just a rough estimation of a person's skills. They are everything but a precise measurement of intelligence. Intelligence is an abstract concept with many facets that can not be expressed in a singular number. Simply do a second IQ test right after your first and your score will be higher. Just because you know what to expect of the questions you will be quicker and more secure in your decisions. You will not have been getting more intelligent by doing a single IQ test.
Now to the main question.
Could intelligence be bred?
Yes, basically any trait could be artificially selected for. It is more likely for two people with a very healthy and fit body to have children that are more prone to having healthy and fit body. (Same goes for unhealthy, btw.) If you have two people who are strong exhibitors of any trait it is likely that their offspring will be carrying that trait, too.
Intelligence is not a singular trait. There are a many influencing factors, genetically speaking. People with genetic defects like Down-Syndrom can still be perfectly functional humans, but it is significantly less likely for them to be above average in most things they do.
Other factors like high testosterone, estrogen and other hormone levels influence a person's tendencies and traits, too. Every hormone differently and there are always strong exceptions. Biochemistry is the most difficult thing to model precisly.
Does it suffice to just start a colony of intelligent people?
Not necessarily, no. Just because somebody is smart, does not mean they are a good parent. While many traits like physical prowess thrive on exercise, so does intelligence. It is extremely unlikely to grow up to be intelligent, when you have never had any nurturing of this skill. The human brain and body build what they need. When a child's mind is never given any intellectual input, why would it develop a skill to interpret such input?
The intelligent parents' DNA just makes it more likely that the child is going to be good at building up intelligence. If it is never given an opportunity to build it up it will not use that potential.
What you need
...is a program that selects compatible intelligent people and makes sure that they are raised well, including a healthy home enviroment and parental attention. Early education is important. Focus all of the education and attention on rewarding intellectual skill. This means lots of challenging games from a young age one in which the children can hone their skills. If you want them having a healthy psyche it should always be focussing on rewarding progress instead of demanding progress, the latter works to but comes with side effects I'll talk about below.
An important side note
While you could also create socially incapable, semi-autistic people with a very high IQ with less effort, by ignoring the "healthy" part I mentioned, I would personally advise against it as the people might have advanced skill sets, but their lack of social skills would make it more difficult for these skills to be applied in a productive context.
Besides that, it would also be child abuse. Not too fond of that.
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
answered 46 mins ago
ArtificialSoul
5,5451641
5,5451641
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is heritable
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-intelligence-hereditary/
Scientists have investigated this question for more than a century, and the answer is clear: the differences between people on intelligence tests are substantially the result of genetic differences.
But...
We are talking about average differences among people and not about individuals.
And...
Any one person's intelligence might be blown off course from its genetic potential by, for example, an illness in childhood.
Still...
we know, for example, that later in life, children adopted away from their biological parents at birth are just as similar to their biological parents as are children reared by their biological parents.
Bottom line
You'll need to perform selective breeding, "just" as farmers breed plants, ranchers breed cattle, and rich people breed dogs.
However
we can't answer how much smarter they'd be.
Caveat
High intelligence correlates to higher rates of mental illness.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/
The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7 percent) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20 percent reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10 percent for each.
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is heritable
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-intelligence-hereditary/
Scientists have investigated this question for more than a century, and the answer is clear: the differences between people on intelligence tests are substantially the result of genetic differences.
But...
We are talking about average differences among people and not about individuals.
And...
Any one person's intelligence might be blown off course from its genetic potential by, for example, an illness in childhood.
Still...
we know, for example, that later in life, children adopted away from their biological parents at birth are just as similar to their biological parents as are children reared by their biological parents.
Bottom line
You'll need to perform selective breeding, "just" as farmers breed plants, ranchers breed cattle, and rich people breed dogs.
However
we can't answer how much smarter they'd be.
Caveat
High intelligence correlates to higher rates of mental illness.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/
The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7 percent) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20 percent reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10 percent for each.
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
Intelligence is heritable
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-intelligence-hereditary/
Scientists have investigated this question for more than a century, and the answer is clear: the differences between people on intelligence tests are substantially the result of genetic differences.
But...
We are talking about average differences among people and not about individuals.
And...
Any one person's intelligence might be blown off course from its genetic potential by, for example, an illness in childhood.
Still...
we know, for example, that later in life, children adopted away from their biological parents at birth are just as similar to their biological parents as are children reared by their biological parents.
Bottom line
You'll need to perform selective breeding, "just" as farmers breed plants, ranchers breed cattle, and rich people breed dogs.
However
we can't answer how much smarter they'd be.
Caveat
High intelligence correlates to higher rates of mental illness.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/
The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7 percent) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20 percent reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10 percent for each.
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
Intelligence is heritable
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-intelligence-hereditary/
Scientists have investigated this question for more than a century, and the answer is clear: the differences between people on intelligence tests are substantially the result of genetic differences.
But...
We are talking about average differences among people and not about individuals.
And...
Any one person's intelligence might be blown off course from its genetic potential by, for example, an illness in childhood.
Still...
we know, for example, that later in life, children adopted away from their biological parents at birth are just as similar to their biological parents as are children reared by their biological parents.
Bottom line
You'll need to perform selective breeding, "just" as farmers breed plants, ranchers breed cattle, and rich people breed dogs.
However
we can't answer how much smarter they'd be.
Caveat
High intelligence correlates to higher rates of mental illness.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-highly-intelligent/
The biggest differences between the Mensa group and the general population were seen for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. More than a quarter (26.7 percent) of the sample reported that they had been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, while 20 percent reported an anxiety disorder—far higher than the national averages of around 10 percent for each.
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
edited 16 mins ago
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
answered 32 mins ago
RonJohn
12.9k12661
12.9k12661
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
add a comment |Â
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
I am intrigued by your caveat that high intelligence correlates to higher rates of insanity. Have you got a source for this? If so could you add it to your answer?
– mwarren
25 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren adding the citation now.
– RonJohn
18 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
@mwarren and changed "insanity" to "mental illness".
– RonJohn
15 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
Thank you. That's excellent.
– mwarren
12 mins ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
You can definitely train for ability to score highly in IQ tests, so you should be able to breed for it. That's not going to make anybody "smarter" - all it will do is increase the ability to score highly on IQ tests. Even Mensa agrees that IQ is only an indicator of intelligence or ability to problem solve*
As pointed out by @F1Krazy, your group's median IQ will remain 100, but you will be able to raise median IQ as compared with outside the group, as even with the inclusion of environments less conducive to IQ, the improvement over time has been positive (see Flynn Effect) so providing an environment conducive to learning, personal development and support and an improvement in health should all contribute.
*I've been a member of Mensa for maybe 20 years and can categorically state that high IQ is not a consistent indicator of anything other than getting high scores in the Mensa test. Membership includes heads of business, unemployed plumbers, musicians, mathematicians...
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
You can definitely train for ability to score highly in IQ tests, so you should be able to breed for it. That's not going to make anybody "smarter" - all it will do is increase the ability to score highly on IQ tests. Even Mensa agrees that IQ is only an indicator of intelligence or ability to problem solve*
As pointed out by @F1Krazy, your group's median IQ will remain 100, but you will be able to raise median IQ as compared with outside the group, as even with the inclusion of environments less conducive to IQ, the improvement over time has been positive (see Flynn Effect) so providing an environment conducive to learning, personal development and support and an improvement in health should all contribute.
*I've been a member of Mensa for maybe 20 years and can categorically state that high IQ is not a consistent indicator of anything other than getting high scores in the Mensa test. Membership includes heads of business, unemployed plumbers, musicians, mathematicians...
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
You can definitely train for ability to score highly in IQ tests, so you should be able to breed for it. That's not going to make anybody "smarter" - all it will do is increase the ability to score highly on IQ tests. Even Mensa agrees that IQ is only an indicator of intelligence or ability to problem solve*
As pointed out by @F1Krazy, your group's median IQ will remain 100, but you will be able to raise median IQ as compared with outside the group, as even with the inclusion of environments less conducive to IQ, the improvement over time has been positive (see Flynn Effect) so providing an environment conducive to learning, personal development and support and an improvement in health should all contribute.
*I've been a member of Mensa for maybe 20 years and can categorically state that high IQ is not a consistent indicator of anything other than getting high scores in the Mensa test. Membership includes heads of business, unemployed plumbers, musicians, mathematicians...
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
You can definitely train for ability to score highly in IQ tests, so you should be able to breed for it. That's not going to make anybody "smarter" - all it will do is increase the ability to score highly on IQ tests. Even Mensa agrees that IQ is only an indicator of intelligence or ability to problem solve*
As pointed out by @F1Krazy, your group's median IQ will remain 100, but you will be able to raise median IQ as compared with outside the group, as even with the inclusion of environments less conducive to IQ, the improvement over time has been positive (see Flynn Effect) so providing an environment conducive to learning, personal development and support and an improvement in health should all contribute.
*I've been a member of Mensa for maybe 20 years and can categorically state that high IQ is not a consistent indicator of anything other than getting high scores in the Mensa test. Membership includes heads of business, unemployed plumbers, musicians, mathematicians...
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
answered 1 hour ago
Rory Alsop
1,2961021
1,2961021
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
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2
IQ scores are weighted such that 100 is the median score. After 5 generations, 100 will still be the median, it will just mean something different.
– F1Krazy
2 hours ago
@F1Krazy Compared to the general population which is 100. The bred humans are few in numbers compared with around 30 millions normal humans.
– Geonosis
2 hours ago
Are the families the children are adopted to more socio-economically stable then the average family? If so, that can have a bigger impact then anything genetics brings to the table.
– JGreenwell
1 hour ago
@JGreenwell The program excludes poor and/or problematic families (criminals, unhealthy, socialists etc). Beside that children are placed in childless families that are looking for adoption which could provide financial stability and opportunity for education.
– Geonosis
1 hour ago