On racial and gender differences in IQ

There has been a lot written on differences in mean IQ scores between different ethnicities and nationalities. Murray and Hernstein's "Bell Curve", and Lynn and Vanhanen's "IQ and the Wealth of Nations", are two scholarly discussions of the topic. Gender differences in IQ and aptitude are also controversial, typified by the excellent debate at edge.org between a somewhat ditzy and reactionary psychologist from Berkeley and a progressive linguist from MIT(now Harvard).

When it comes to next level humans, these differences will not be significant. Compared to the difference between modern humans and next level humans, these small differences between gender and ethnicity will not matter.

More in the next post.

Rugged Transition

Getting to the next level from here is going to be very hard. Our tax supported schools are turning out morons. Our news and popular media are geared to a second grade level of understanding of the world. Our pension plans are financial time bombs guaranteed to destroy our economies within twenty years. We are letting in immigrants who have sworn to destroy our civilisation. A self hating multiculturalism is in control of our universities and most government agencies. When most people think of economics, they think of government spending and redistributing wealth--never about creating wealth in the first place.

Getting to the next level from here is going to be very hard. But not impossible. The reason I say that is that not everybody needs to go on to the next level for the transition to count. It is estimated that one tenth of the population does 95% of the thinking and producing for the other 90% of the population. When it comes to transitioning to next level existence, the ratio may be closer to 5:95, or less. Never mind. Next level humans will be incredibly potent.

Modern welfare state mentality has taken over western civilisation, even the USA. Western people have taken the lazy way, the way of the functionary, the wage slave, the sedentary. Obesity is not a disease, it is a symptom of the disease. Drug addiction is not a disease, it is another symptom of the same disease. Alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, poverty. The disease is being stuck between primitive, subsistence level humanity, and the next level of human existence. The big mistake that most people make is believing that since a few humans are able to design sophisticated machines, medicines, and financial systems, that they themselves by virtue of profiting from the ingenuity of these other people are more than primitive level humans. Even most people with college educations and professional training are little more than primitive level humans. That is exactly where most of them will stay for the rest of their lives until they die.

Ten percent support the other ninety percent. That will continue to work for our modern between level civilisation until it doesn't work anymore. Then the future will depend upon how hard our between level civilisation falls, and how soon it happens. If more than 1% or 2% have made the transition to the next level, it may be enough. Enough of the financial and scientific infrastructure has to survive to let the next levels bootstrap large numbers of between levels up. Already there are thousands of potential next levels, lacking only the biotechnological breakthroughs needed to retard their bodies' aging process. They have already matured mentally, emotionally, and financially. Unfortunately they often do not have time to procreate, or to teach very many others the things they have learned. In other words the line of progress stops with them, in 70 years or less. What a waste.

The next level is not inevitable. Most people cannot even imagine what it would mean. The billionaire Ted Turner thinks that the world would be fine if only he could make nearly six billion people disappear. He and people who think like him think that would cure the world's problems. Cretins.

Extropians talk about the singularity and downloading of consciousness into computers. That type of thinking is basically magical in nature, much like the divine skyhook rescue envisioned by many religious people.

I will be content for a self-sustaining number of humans to achieve the next level in the next 60 or 70 years, in my lifetime.

What are Next Level Humans?

You might be wondering what I mean by the term, "next level humans." A next level human society will mark a dramatic turning point for human history.

I consider the present human living in a western society as being a "between levels human." No longer primitive, but not really fully functional. A primitive human saw himself as constantly at the mercy of the gods, or the elements. Only a few primitive humans sought to master their own fates, and they generally did so by enslaving everyone around them and forcing them to work to make the few masters rich at the expense of the many. This is the pattern one sees in primitive nations such as Zimbabwe, Cuba, and Burma.

Modern people believe in self-government, in taking some responsibility for oneself, to varying degrees. They pay lip service to science and human ingenuity and personal responsibility, while the less emancipated demand that governments take care of their needs from the cradle to the grave.

Intelligence is clearly related to genetic factors, but the most intelligent persons fail to reproduce to replacement levels and the least intelligent persons often procreate to double or triple replacement levels. This is dysgenic. What is worse, it is frequently being financed with public funding. All that is justified by an appeal to compassion. It is irrational in the sense that it is guaranteed to create far more hardship in the future.

Next level humans will better understand how to increase intelligence levels in themselves and in the next generations. Next level humans will have to make many hard decisions based upon goals with a longer time scale than between-level humans are accustomed to. Next level humans will not expect a government to take constant care of them, nor will they expect some divine skyhook to drop from the sky to rescue them from a tight spot.

One Way to Increase Intelligence

Ashkenazi Jews have a higher average IQ than Europeans, by between one half to one standard deviation. The reason for this difference has recently been examined by Cochrane et al, with the conclusion that certain gene allele combinations achieved higher frequency among Ashkenazis due to selective pressures. These alleles produced both higher intelligence and a higher likelihood for certain genetic diseases. Their scientific paper can be obtained at:
this link .

Unfortunately the nature of the threats that humanity currently faces is such that any attempt to increase intelligence through selective pressures would take too long. A lot more needs to be learned about the nature of hereditary intelligence, in all populations. I suspect that genetic disease is not necessarily coupled to allele clusters that lead to higher intelligence.

Genes that lead to higher intelligence, longer lifespan, and radiation resistance/resistance to cancerous transformation, are among the many ingredients needed for the genome of next level humans.