[ExI] What if humans were twice as intelligent?

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2013-10-14 11:00, BillK wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM, Anders Sandberg wrote:
>> The point about personality mattering is very
>> true: intelligence is multiplicative with motivation, neither can substitute
>> for the other.
>>
> i.e. The evil genius will be twice as bad. (Smiles and strokes white cat).

And have to contend with millions of peers. (Similes and strokes an 
identical white cat)

A spread of smarts would even the playing field for a lot of normally 
high-threshold jobs. So we will want actuaries and particle physicists 
who are not just smart, but also social, creative or any other added 
useful trait. Meanwhile the currently very smart people in this scenario 
will end up having to find activities that are hard to do for the mere 
geniuses; that is likely going to be tough.

> It doesn't mention that for humans high intelligence now seems to be 
> an evolutionary disadvantage. The top 20% don't reproduce nearly as 
> much as lower IQs. High IQ acts like a form of birth control.

The effect is fairly weak. While the image of Idiocracy is vivid, when 
you actually sit down and simulate genetic equilibria of numerous small 
IQ-related genes you will find that the anti-intelligence selection 
effect is not doing much.


-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University