[ExI] shining example and COVID-19

[Keith Henson]

Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] shining example and COVID-19
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        <CAAc1gFjFL0fRh1PL3af12evyEKM=hW8W-yK189BKPAOKif_xSg at mail.gmail.com>
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On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 7:51 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Our psychological traits such as introversion have also been
> selected.by evolution.  Intelligence too.  Statistically, people far
> from the center of the intelligence distribution don't reproduce as
> well as those nearer the center.  It's fairly clear that people are
> not likely to reproduce who are too low on the scale, but it is also
> true that really smart people don't reproduce very well either.

### You say that current IQ levels are optimized for maximum fitness around
average IQ, similar to height. I disagree.

snip

### IQ is different from height.

How?  If measured, do both fall on a bell curve?  Are they both due to
genes?  As a general rule, any trait that falls on such a curve is
being trimmed on both sides.  If it were not, then the center peak
would drift until both ends were being trimmed.

### Under almost all natural environmental
conditions and in all social positions a more intelligent person will be
fitter than a less intelligent one.

Perhaps.  I don't think IQ was directly selected in the events that
led up to the industrial revolution.  Clark thinks it was pulled along
in the selection for wealth that he investigated but it was only a
component of the suite of personality traits that included literacy,
numeracy, willingness to put off rewards, and low levels of
impulsiveness plus other traits like alcohol resistance.

### This means that there is some positive
selection for IQ at all levels. However, IQ depends on a large number of
genes working perfectly together to create a very complex and finely tuned
structure - and the more genes there are, the more likely that some of them
will have more or less deleterious mutations. The fewer damaged genes you
have, the higher IQ you can achieve.

Can you point to a study where this is discussed?  I never heard this
theory before.

Keith