Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!visdc!jiii
From: jiii@visdc.UUCP (John E Van Deusen III)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Inheritance of IQ
Message-ID: <603@visdc.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jul 89 19:08:49 GMT
References: <5453@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <2061@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <5480@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <458@edai.ed.ac.uk> <602@visdc.UUCP> <3072@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Reply-To: jiii@visdc.UUCP (John E Van Deusen III)
Organization: VI Software Development, Boise, Idaho
Lines: 34

In article <3072@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu
(Gordon E. Banks) writes:
>
> If populations are separated from each other, is it not conceivable
> that evolutionary pressures in one environment might not differ from
> those in another, thus producing a differential effect?

Can you suggest what one of the "differential evolutionary pressures"
might be?

I again want to state that all humans have essentially the same genetic
compliment.  No one race of humans has "evolved" beyond the others, if
evolution is defined to be the assimilation of a positive random genetic
mutation.  What exists among humans is only variation in the expression
of a common pool of genetic information.

The levels of genetic intelligence within a population fit a standard
probability distribution; that is, 95% of the population is within two
standard deviations of the mean.  Consider an isolated population of
one million humans selectively bred for intelligence for ten thousand
years.  The mean level of intelligence within this hypothetical
population might be higher than that of the rest of humanity, but the
absolute number of individuals with any given level of intelligence
would still be greater in the general population.  Furthermore, any
random mutation, ultimately resulting in a truly evolved human, is
very much more likely to occur in the larger population.

The human with the highest genetic potential for intelligence that has
ever existed on the earth is most likely a peasant in China, and he or
she is probably still alive.
--
John E Van Deusen III, PO Box 9283, Boise, ID  83707, (208) 343-1865

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