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Subject: Re: Things presented in-story as Good Ideas that seem like really Bad Ideas
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2024 23:56:05 +0000
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Mad Hamish wrote:
> a) that's your objection to the policy?

Of course it would be possible to say a lot of things about L5 colonists
who
established a rule that their colonies were for people with
significantly
above-average IQs only.

One could call it elitist, ableist, or bigoted. And throw in eugenics
for good
measure.

However, it wasn't necessary to wade into politics. Or even the nature
vs nurture
debate.

It's well known that the genetic component of intelligence doesn't
"breed true", for
the reason I've noted - a lot of different genes affect intelligence. So
the idea of
sending back everyone who turns out to not meet the threshold for entry
to the space
colony... is wildly impractical.

This isn't "politics I disagree with", it's "bad science", which is an
_objective_
flaw. Sure, I do argue politics, but I also try to avoid it when I don't
have to.

However, to answer your question...

That the people in charge of the L5 colonies in the novel want to build
a new and
better world, and think that peopling it with those who are above
average in
intelligence is a reasonable part of doing so... does _not_ cause me to
have a
knee-jerk reaction that this is EEEVIL.

So to some extent, your suspicions of me are valid.

Human stupidity is indeed one of the big causes of the problems we have
here on Earth.
However, the kind of stupidity that causes problems... doesn't correlate
well with IQ.
Fanatical nationalism, religion, or ideology can corrupt the thinking of
otherwise
quite intelligent people.

John Savard
John Savard