[ExI] No need for radical changes in human nature/was Re: Private and government R&D

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/7/10 Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>:

>> http://law.jrank.org/pages/1364/Intelligence-Crime-R-20-meaningful-correlation-size.html
>
> "Hypothetically, then, randomly assigning high IQs to low-IQ individuals
> would decrease their criminal behavior by about 30 percent"
>
> Yes. And since stupid people are perhaps more likely to depend on brute
> force rather than cunning (except among themselves), one might expect less
> violence and certainly less crime if IQs were universally boosted--unless
> newly high-IQ pests became even more bored, frustrated and intrusive, like
> script kiddies with their fun viruses.

But perhaps it is the IQ differential rather than absolute IQ which
leads to the difference in violent behaviour; i.e., you use brute
force when you can't outsmart someone. The conclusion that boosting IQ
would decrease crime is not supported by the evidence given even if
the evidence is accepted at face value.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou