VinnieK Posted June 28, 2009 Share Posted June 28, 2009 Good looking people, isn't that all it boils down to? Define 'good looking' independent of cultural sensibilities and the varying tastes of fashion over the ages! Then compare with the average couple to see how their closely their respective choices match this definition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pongo Posted June 28, 2009 Share Posted June 28, 2009 this is very true, many of the members of high IQ societies have ordinary mundane jobs, i often theorise that this is due to a profound lack of ambition, i may write a small monograph on the subject. Possibly I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'high IQ societies'. But if you mean societies like MENSA: I am almost certain that membership of MENSA is primarily defined by being the sort of people who would even want to be in something like that. Only a certain sort of person would want anything to do with them. And IQ tests are not an objective measure of anything other than the ability to perform well in IQ tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted June 28, 2009 Author Share Posted June 28, 2009 Nice skin is about the only one I know that's close to being universal. Heavy Lasses have often been subjects of amor whether by Rubens or various painters of the Tang Dynasty. Stick Insects were thought of as consumptive til the late 20th century! I can't really comment on bloke's - broad shoulders and tall seem closer to universal than any female trait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lao Posted June 28, 2009 Share Posted June 28, 2009 this is very true, many of the members of high IQ societies have ordinary mundane jobs, i often theorise that this is due to a profound lack of ambition, i may write a small monograph on the subject. Possibly I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'high IQ societies'. But if you mean societies like MENSA: I am almost certain that membership of MENSA is primarily defined by being the sort of people who would even want to be in something like that. Only a certain sort of person would want anything to do with them. And IQ tests are not an objective measure of anything other than the ability to perform well in IQ tests. yes thats what im talking about, high IQ societies like mensa. all of what you have said is fair comment, but i will say that if you are going to consider IQ subjective, then it is doubly true for intelligence. how do you even begin to define intelligence ? is it the amount of specific knowledge you hold in your area of expertise? the amount of general knowledge you have outside of any specific career based knowledge? is it the number of books you have read or the quality of those books? intelligence is a hard thing to qantify. you seem to have some sort of distaste for people who would join or want to join a High IQ society, so i will ask this in their defence, is your distaste for everyone who wants to band together with other likeminded people as strong? martial arts clubs, football fan clubs, book clubs, choirs, wine tasting , religous, speed dating and just about any other activity or club that you can think where people who have something in common spend time together? i think you might just be being a little hard on them. to give my thoughts on the question of how natural selection will affect the human race in the future, i see one major factor in the human selection process and that is the lack of a selector. there is very little that kills us off in sufficent numbers to actual have a selective effect on competative DNA, so i can forsee us having a constant battle with super viruses, there could well be and ebb and flow of population figures as killer infections cull the herd. one of the possible traits that could become favorable as a meme rather than a genetic trait is creativity/invention. the ability to solve problems as they arise and find new soltions to old problem to increase quality of life will bring more and more rewards to the originator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pongo Posted June 28, 2009 Share Posted June 28, 2009 if you are going to consider IQ subjective I didn't say that. IQ is IQ. It's the IQ system. When you someone takes an IQ test all that is measured is their score on an IQ test. As determined by the IQ system. An IQ test is an objective measure of your ability to perform well in IQ tests. It doesn't measure anything else. The IQ system is taken for granted because IQ has entered the language. The system has always been controversial. Many clearly very bright people perform badly on IQ tests - people who find it difficult to concentrate on a single task at a given time, for example. It is a rather out of date system. how do you even begin to define intelligence ? I'm not sure why anyone would want to. And I'm not sure that intelligence is something which demands definition. It's one of those nebulous concepts. It's a word which works best like that. It can be observed or witnessed but not measured. It does not need to be defined. you seem to have some sort of distaste for people who would join or want to join a High IQ society No. What I said was that membership of the high IQ society would be primarily defined by being the sort of people who would even want to be in something like that. Which is a fact. I cannot understand why anyone would want to join something like that - but it is not distaste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinnieK Posted June 28, 2009 Share Posted June 28, 2009 (edited) one of the possible traits that could become favorable as a meme rather than a genetic trait is creativity/invention. the ability to solve problems as they arise and find new soltions to old problem to increase quality of life will bring more and more rewards to the originator. I'm not so sure about this. Take for example the world of academic research, specifically in the sciences and engineering. It has to be said that the rewards for such creativity and invention are, apart from the odd gong here and there or conference jollies (which are as much a hassle as they are anything else), pretty modest overall, public recognition minimal, and the hoops a person has to jump through becoming more numerous and stifling. If anything, the popular trend is to reward those who entertain us - this has been the case for generations and shows no signs of abating. Also, a large and growing proportion of students entering university these days seem to aspire to careers in investment banking and, alongside law, this is where people view the greatest potential to be rewarded for their efforts rather than in an area that demands a particular sense of creativity or invention being dedicated towards a purpose that is specifically beneficial. Were it possible, I suspect society might gravitate towards the following model: 5% Footballers/models/tellybox cloth-heads 18% Hedge fund managers/solicitors/braying pin stripe golems 76.999% Contestants on Britain's Got Talent. 0.001% Designers of things like toastabags, and various other items that could appear in JML's inventory of mystifying things. Edited June 28, 2009 by VinnieK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lao Posted June 29, 2009 Share Posted June 29, 2009 i agree that the entertainment meme is and will contine to be popular, however i think that in the future its impact on society will lessen. i cant see anything taking its place, but i can see a wider variety of people being elevated to the rank of 'celebrity'.greater appreciation of the amatuer athletes, the rise of the reality TV star and internet celebrity have all taken their own portion of the fame and in the future i see a growing interest in celebrating the intellect. as for the intelligence/IQ discussion i would have to disagree that they are not related. many of the more reputable IQ tests (not the kind found on facebook) are very good for demonstating the apply knowledge/solve problems part of intelligence which depending on the definitions of intelligece you accept is one third to one fifth of the required criteria. i know people who dont score well on IQ tests, they are considered educated and intelligent but they are not problem solvers,nor big on aplied knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lao Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 So we will shortly be at war with the formalhaut due to us inflicting them with saved by the bell, but Arcturus will surely come to our aid in the hope that their are some more M.A.S.H. christmas specials that they havent quite reached them yet. If the BBC ever find out about this, they'll start their own space program to get the TV licence money from distant planet! as an aside did anyone ever play the old game elite 2 :frontier ? formalhaut was a profitable stop in the game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 China, all your questions are answered here: http://missinguniversemuseum.com/Exhibit5.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alibaba Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 as an aside did anyone ever play the old game elite 2 :frontier ? formalhaut was a profitable stop in the game I did. A lot. Super stuff. It would be cool if they could update it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terse Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 If you think Muslims sometimes take a blinkered view of things, just read THIS ...and weep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 Follow the link - type in Steve Jones into the search window towards the bottom. Click on the link for "Why Creationism is wrong and evolution right" and enjoy 1hr:11mins:27secs of some of the best science communication available in the world. When I did it the Window's Media Player worked better than the real player which was only sound and not full video, not sure why! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bananaman Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Take that God Symphony of Science Brill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted January 6, 2010 Author Share Posted January 6, 2010 Interesting Lecture on Compartmentalization - how intelligent people can compartmentalize illogical beliefs from reason, evidence and logic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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