“Few things are discussed as unintelligently as intelligence”
– Thomas Sowell
“In God we trust, all others must bring data.”
– William Edwards Deming
Why didn’t Africa develop as quickly technologically as Europe, is it because certain races of humans are more intelligent than others ? The narrative spoken or unspoken is genetic superiority. A book published in 1994 called The Bell Curve by Richard J Hernstein and Charles Murray presented data showing deficits of measured I,Q. In non white races. Popular author and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson stated that the ‘data is in’ if I.Q. tests mean anything there are differences between races.
Scratching a little beneath the surface.
“I’m looking through my belly button window and seeing a whole lot of frowns” – Jimi Hendrix, My Belly Button Window.
Musician Jimi Hendrix claimed to have retained very early memories, one memory was of the hospital he was born in. Events which happen even between conception and birth can act as potential inhibitors to development of a human mind. Jewish journalist Ben Shapiro stated the comparison between the Nazi holocaust and the termination of unwanted black unborn babies in the west (approximately a million a year on adverage) is not an inappropriate comparison.
Are the concerns of a pregnant black woman and their effects on her unborn available measurable data for comparison ?
“I’m very sensitive….very much a mummy’s boy”
– Tom Hardy, actor.
“My sensitivity is my greatest weakness, I am overly sensitive”
– Mike Tyson, boxer.
Data itself is sensitive. For instance testing I.Q. Within families the data consistently shows first born children having higher I.Q.s Spurious conclusions could easily be drawn from this. Such as the mother’s having a limited store of genetic potential ‘like a gas tank in a car’ which runs lower with each progressive child born. It is more likely an environmental / over a genetic effect. Such as the inspirational effect of a child being able to observe, nurture and assist with the development of a younger sibling
The book The Bell Curve also showed many variants within a racial group. Race was not necessarily the intended target of an intentionally malicious study.
Consider the initial terms Jordan Peterson used to qualify the assertion. ‘It is dependant on the inherent validity of testing’. For instance is it even possible to find a group of adult black people (in a wide enough population sample) who are not aware their genetic background has been “questioned” presented as closer to apes on an evolutionary level, or that black people were once an underclass of chatal slaves in the west, even if the test group has similar or equivelent economic circumstances at time of testing ?
There is of course a placebo effect with such knowledge. The effect of low expectations and low confidence on human outcomes is real. In the context of a technologically superior civilisation in Europe these kinds of facts could be dismissed as excuses.
For many the proof is in the pudding and iPhones & broadband wifi are the pudding.
Wakanda Forever !
The free spirited talent of comic book doyen Stan Lee creator of Spiderman desired to address this in his imagined country of Wakanda. A secret African country with highly developed technologies. The late exuberant Stan Lee stated he wanted to create a character that would be especially appealing for young black fans in the light of the civil rights movement. Somewhat of an irony followed the success of the character due to the wideness of its appeal when young white boys wanted to innocently cos-play the character such is the political climate that accusations of cultural appropriation were raised
(or at least culturally appropriated eyebrows were raised)
No doubt Stan Lee’s creaton was well intentioned and well motivated but the fact that he did it actually re-emphasises the question. Its seems in order to give something of pride to black youths he felt he needed to create a high tech entity. So why didn’t Africa develop technologies at the rate Europe did ? Again unspoken this underwrites the general apprehension of genetic superiority in the general perceptions of many people.
What does Alexa think of the Bell Curve ?
Intelgence quota testing between sex Male-Female can produce variant data without calling into question the obvious vitalness of males and females to each other. The vitalness of the different races of the human family – to each other may only be proved over time.
Consider what are the issues with humans breeding in a limited genetic pool. The magnification for the possibility of defects.
More people understand the concept of wisdom and foolishness than would be able to provide a concise definition. If it is basic computational power we are attributing to intelligence, only scientists should govern humanity and rule the world.
As it is, the world is often ruled by classes of Royalty who may interbreed a little too closely with there own genetic pool.
The time span between 1994 when Bell Curve was published and 2022 is less that a moment in terms of the evolution of humans on any kind of Darwinian model. Almost the exact opposite can be said about artificial intelligence. What are the revised considerations of the data since Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa went online.
Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
Often considered the most vital person in the effort of the allied forces to defeat the Nazis in World War 2. Turing dev eloped and constructed a computer dedicated to deciphering encrypted Nazi messages. His machine was often referred to as a “Thinking Machine”. His continued work in the field following the war led him to philosophize a standard for measuring machine intelligence. This became known as ‘The Turing Test’. If an investigator or interrogator could interact with a machine and not be certain whether they were interacting with a human this could be considered a standard of intelligence.
‘Which ever nation becomes the leader in the field of A.I.
Will rule the world.” -Vladimir Putin.
“A.I. is risky at the civilisation level” – Elon Musk
Googles director of engineering Ray Kurzweil boasts an 86% accuracy rate for being able to predict the future.
147 of his predictions have come true since the 1990’s.
“2029 is the consistent date I have given for when A.I. Will pass a [completely] valid Turing test and therefore achieve levels of human intelligence” – Ray Kurzweil
“I have set 2045 for the date of ‘The Singularity’ which is when we multiply out intelligence a billion fold by merging with the intelligence we have created” – Ray Kurzweil.
The successes in the field of A.I. Development beckons the question again. What exactly are we talking about when we say intelligence ? Especially if we can consider intelligence as something entirely separate from humans.
The man who for many personifies ‘intelligence’ Albert Einstein might be considered.
“I know not what weapons World War 3 will be fought with but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein.
War has not been eradicated for developed nations.
Can technologically advanced nations with the capacity and potential to destroy the entirety of humanity truly be construed as superior ?
Can a ‘way of life’ be superior, and the race that created it, if it is a ‘way of death’ ?
Computers exist now which can beat all but the very best chess players. A.I. Can presently sometimes pass as human responders. What would the final hierarchy of races look like ?
African-Asian-European-Robot ?
IBM’s role in asisting the Nazis exterminate Jews
Is pure problem solving intelligence preempted by the intelligence who questions exactly what is the problem to be solved and how that is ascertained ?
Consider Archimedes of Ancient Greece.
Archemedes was given the task of determining what materials the king’s crown was made of. After his eureka! Moment was it not likely that Archemedes would also be asked to consider ‘what is the most effective way of defeating the enemies’ of the wearer of the crown ?
Archimedes intelligence is proved, yet who or what it serves or how it is deployed may itself be an intelligent question.
The ancient Greeks also had the parable of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For all considerations Fire is synonymous with technology in the parable. The punishment for Prometheus for his theft was to have his liver pecked out each day by an eagle. Prometheus suffered a ‘Groundhog Day’ scenario as every day his liver would grow back only for it to be removed by the bird again. The liver is in fact the most regenerative organ in the body being able to regenerate up to 75% of itself.
How could the Greeks possibly know that ?
Does the story of Prometheus communicate this as knowledge gained through a kind of cultural philosophical intuition ? Rather than through empirical data ?
The Greeks had a culture of philosophy and also abstraction in mathematics. The importance of X the unknown in algebra equations. i.e. Not knowing something and yet being aware that the unknown value has importance.
The ancient Greeks with their amazingly impressive philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Socretes. Their revered mathematicians Pythagorus, Archemedes, Apollonius.
The Greeks had such high intellectual culture they would have thought of themselves as genetically superior had they known what a gene was. The idea of racial superiority for the ancient Greeks was a comparative fetish. For Alexander they were obviously superior in every way conceivable to any other race or culture. Today modernly there is really no international concept of modern Greek people as genetically superior in the way there sometimes is for fair skinned Europeans or fair skinned semetic people. Greeks are not thought of as much different from other latin people such as Italians or Spaniards.
It was the culture of the ancient empire its wealth and militaristic dominance that created an environment for perceived ‘superiority’.
Unfashionabillity of counter-intuitiveness.
The term christendom is more a historical term than a modern one. When we talk about the developed western world the historical geography is christendom. There are several relevant considerations. Some offshoot sects of christendom are literally anti-technology groups. Such as the Amish – Quaker types. These type groups exist as far a field as Russia and the USA often agriculturally based. The European Church of Rome persecuted classical scientists suppressing scientific truths such as the earth revolving around the sun.
It is unfashionable to attribute is the actual beliefs of the European scientists which ultimately led to the modern industrialized developed world directly.
Although Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler were all at serious risk to their lives by the church they were all believers in a creator. As such historically God v Science is more a misnomer than, Church v Science.
The ethos driving great classical scientists was ‘If the physical laws of the universe can be understood and described scientifically we can observe the hand of the creator.
That there exists ‘Law’ to physics indicates what Darth Vader describes as ‘order in the galaxy’.
Thus however unfashionable to suggest it, the reason Europe and the west developed technologically through the classical scientific renaissance is partly due to the belief of the scientists that the universe was based on created laws that could be understood.
It is not so much the racial component [as with the superiority of the ancient Greeks] but rather the ability to perceive ‘law & order’ as a fundamental concept of the physical realm as also shown to be in the moral realm.
Modern intellectuals are less prone to make this attribution. It is unfashionable.
It’s unfashionability is partly rooted in the concept of technological advancement which equates by default with superiority. However as George Orwell and Albert Einstein indicate this is not necessarily the likely outcome.
The Amish and rural religious sects agree with Cherokee first nations people.
The Cherokee agree with George Orwell, Einstein, Vladimir Putin & Elon Musk.
To sit a Cherokee first nations person at a desk in 1900 to test his intelligence is a contradiction for the Cherokee.
The examiner is not qualified to test him.
The test of his intelligence is in the environment in which he lives.
If the culture of the examiner leads to the risk of the destruction of the Cherokee way of life, and eventually the potential to destroy all human life where is the intelligence in the path followed to that outcome ?
In 1900 it wasn’t clear that science would ever lead to the kind of destructive power that could risk all human life yet the intuitive intelligence was present in the first nations culture.
“The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives” – Sioux proverb.
If Jimi Hendrix was looking out his belly button window a man called Freddie who had named himself after both a planet and an ancient Greek messenger was chanting about Galileo whilst being accompanied by A doctor of astro-physics.
So do black people sing the blues because they are sad that they are unintelligent ?
Bell Curve Blues.
The introduction and assimilation of Blues music is inherent in Jazz, Soul, Gospel, Rock. Blue might be considered the youngest form of folk music. It;’s relevance to the music arts is equivalent to the scientific achievement of splitting the atom. Whilst classical music has greatness in form and technical intricacy the human heartbeat does not prove its greatness by its complexity of rhythm, that would be more an indication of something being wrong. The Songs of the 2oth century are a great treasure unlike anything existing prior. The rhythm of 4/4 music is much closer to the human heart beat and empowered by variant forms of blues derivatives speak more to the human experience.
Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was a student of Brahms and boasted as a sponsor and patron Tchykovsky. Dvorak travelled and lived in America he studied early forms of black music. African american music because he and his patrons believed the future of the music arts may in some way lay in that direction.
When the biblical ‘curse of canaan’ became unfashionable as a reason to subjugate black folk evolutionary science was recruited for the same purpose. The biblical ‘curse’ (which actually described ancient Israels dominance over its neighbours rather than modern whites over modern blacks) came second to suggesting black people were closer to apes.
Now with the development of A.I. Is it logical to progress that whites are closer to robots as blacks are to apes ?
If intelligence is something distinct from humanity and created artificially to dominate or irradicate.
We all singing the blues now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkP9cwsEx0o