Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!beowulf!schraudo
From: schraudo@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: left handed
Summary: are left-handed people superior?
Message-ID: <5861@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jan 89 07:17:03 GMT
References: <725@htsa.uucp> <259@edai.ed.ac.uk>
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Reply-To: nschraudolph@ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph)
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In article <725@htsa.uucp> fransvo@htsa.uucp (Frans van Otten) writes:
>Considering this, what should we think of forcing left-handed people to
>write with their right hand ?  (I believe this is mainly in the past, now).

Well, it happened to me, and I am only 22. Although I never noticed anything
of the emotional problems such treatment is supposed to cause, my handwriting
sure is, er, highly individual (aren't you glad this is typed! :-)
On to a different question:

In article <259@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai (Chris Malcolm) writes:
>I recall many years ago (reference forgotten) in a book on handedness
>the suggestion that an unusually large proportion of satirical writers
>were left-handed, along with the speculation that this might have
>something to do with having linguistic skills in both hemispheres.

There are numerous stories I've heard of "statistical evidence" about the 
unusually high number of left-handed people in arts, higher education, 
academia, and what else. This "superiority theory", with some neurological
speculation thrown in for good measure, seems to be rather popular among the
left-handed community (I kind of like it myself :-)

The question is: does anybody out there have HARD statistical or neurological
facts on this, or appropriate references? Is it true or is it hype? Please mail
such material to me (do NOT post - this is not much of an AI topic), and I'll
post a summary.

   "Language is a Virus from Outer Space"  -  William S. Burroughs
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#  Nici Schraudolph                          nschraudolph@ucsd.edu  #
#  University of California, San Diego       ...!ucsd!nschraudolph  #
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Disclaimer:  U.C. Regents and me share no common opinions whatsoever.