Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Mad Hamish Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: Things presented in-story as Good Ideas that seem like really Bad Ideas Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2024 13:42:56 +1000 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 29 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: newsunspammelaws@iinet.unspamme.net.au MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2024 05:43:02 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="afceb20295a6554cad22af77bf0400ab"; logging-data="2916268"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+B2wtWpYN/J4AnHkTn+EmN" User-Agent: ForteAgent/7.20.32.1218 Cancel-Lock: sha1:YcaKGSA+N90eU5bmina0ExJKbMA= Bytes: 2625 On Mon, 9 Sep 2024 19:51:55 +0000, quadibloc wrote: >I remember a novel titled L5. I thought the author was Mack Reynolds, >but apparently not; the author may have had a somewhat similar sounding >name. >The L5 colonies had a rule; no one could go there whose IQ was below a >certain limit, set at an above-average level. *And anyone born there who >was below that level would be sent to Earth.* >The central plot development was that another group was planning to >start up their own L5 colonies; it was a group of black people, with the >intent of providing L5 space for blacks. The question was: should the >existing L5 colonies co-operate with this project or not. It was >resolved in favor of cooperating when it was found the other group would >also follow the same high-IQ policy. >Why is it a bad idea? >Well, we know that when geniuses marry, their children experience what >is known as "regression o the mean". Essentially, there are numerous >different alleles which can cause genius-level intelligence, and so if >the members of a couple are geniuses from different genetic causes, >their higher intelligence won't breed true. >And it costs an awful lot of money to launch people into space. >So this space colony would basically have to import all its people from >Earth, having almost no ability to maintain its own population by >natural increase. >Not a great plan from a bunch of geniuses. a) that's your objection to the policy? b) IQ is significantly affected by environment