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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2015-09-11 04:29, Rafal Smigrodzki
wrote:<br>
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<div>### All you need to "beat" Einstein is to be a bit more
than 4SD above mean (his estimated IQ was 160), which is
found in 1/42000th of the population. Thus there are on
average more than 2 super-Einsteins in every little city
of 100k. Strange that something as unremarkable would
become the focus of news stories.<br>
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<br>
People often think IQ is what determines whether someone will be
Great. But it is just one important factor among many. Besides
obvious issues such as opportunity, motivation and personality the
choice of field of activity has a huge effect. <br>
<br>
The superEinstein bookmaker or advertiser may never be noticed in
history, yet solve problems in their domain very well - it is just
that they may never see a need to transform their domain. Benjamin
Franklin was a polymath who tried his hand at many things and
improved them, but also had a great opportunity to shape them. <br>
<br>
We may apply a bottleneck principle: is the thing holding humans
back generally lack of cognitive capacity, or could it be other
factors? If it is the former, then enhanced IQ will have very big
and wide effects. If it is the later, then the enhancement may still
benefit people but the effects are going to be due to people who
previously were marginal on the other factors and now get around
them thanks to intelligence. I have a suspicion that boosted IQs
will not turn us into Franklins, for that we need boosted
motivations. <br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
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