[ExI] re end of world

[Keith Henson]

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 5:00 AM,   Dan <danust2012 at gmail.com> wrote:

snip
(Keith)
>>
>> The selection wasn't focused entirely toward intelligence, but that
>> got dragged along in the advantages of numeracy, literacy and
>> willingness to delay gratification.  Impulsiveness was selected
>> against.

>
> Is that selection only for IQ? It would seem selection for delayed gratification -- if that can be decoupled from IQ (or intelligence) and other things -- might have gone on during that period.

I don't know.  Delayed gratification and low impulse are necessary but
not enough to get rich, and rich was what made the difference between
the children surviving the famines and epidemics and dying with few or
no surviving children.

Literacy and numeracy were relatively rare at the start of that period
and fairly common after it.  To what extent this was due to selection
pressure and generation after generation of downward social mobility
(where the children of the rich replaced the poor) is hard to guess.

Keith

> Regards,
>
> Dan
>