[extropy-chat] Harvard president criticized over comments

[Adrian Tymes]

--- John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:
> "Adrian Tymes" <wingcat at pacbell.net>
> > it's been shown that [.]  , female students are
> just as capable of
> > learning science at male students.
> 
> That could be correct, I really don't know, but the
> above statement is so 
> politically correct it makes me suspicious of its
> veracity.

Political correctness, like all memesets of its ilk,
contains at least a grain of truth.  (The problem
being the incorrect things that get built from that
grain.)  Complete and total nonsense tends not to gain
as large a foothold as nonsense mixed with truth.

> The 
> extraordinary rarity of great female mathematicians
> also makes me wonder, 
> but like I said I really don't know.

Great mathemeticians of either gender are
extraordinarily rare, to the point that conclusions
based on the distribution seem unreliable due to the
small sample size.

Even if there is a biological factor, though, the
likely gains from reforming society appear to so
overwhelm the possible gains from any solution based
on gender factors as to make the latter close enough
to zero as makes no practical difference.