[extropy-chat] Harvard president criticized over comments

[John K Clark]

"Samantha Atkins" <sjatkins at mac.com>

> From what I have heard the most gifted and brightest
>  humans learn (at least in experimental tests) no more
> than twice as easily/quickly than the norm.

That's probably true and in some subjects, like engineering a small
superiority won't produce a huge difference in results, but in science and
especially higher mathematics it can.  If I'm 90% as good a mathematician as
you then two people like me are not 1.8 times as productive as you, we can
not even equal you.

> I know more than a few very high IQ people whose
> mental powers are confined largely to trivia and the
> creation and maintenance of very convoluted
> and intricate neuroses.

That's true but not surprising; it would be surprising if the most
complicated thing in the universe, intelligence, could be described by just
one number when you need a vector to do the same for something as simple as
the wind. For brains I imagine you'd need a tensor, and a big one.

  John K Clark     jonkc at att.net