Re: An essay I just wrote on the Singularity.

From: Perry E. Metzger (perry@piermont.com)
Date: Fri Jan 02 2004 - 15:31:53 MST


Lawrence Foard <entropy@farviolet.com> writes:
> On Fri, 2 Jan 2004, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>> "Ben Goertzel" <ben@goertzel.org> writes:
>> > I don't think there is a correlation between high IQ and psychological
>> > problems.
>>
>> There most certainly is -- people with high IQs tend to have serious
>> social problems. That's not to say I would prefer to be dumber, of
>> course.
>
> Otherwise known as autistic spectrum. Supposedly an epidemic, in other
> words the idiots in child psychology are finally noticing that nerds
> often share certain characteristics.

It isn't just nerdyness. Asperger's is a real syndrome. Many of the
symptoms, such as body rocking etc., aren't just a question of "being
different".

> Try to find a really good scientist or engineer that doesn't have a
> good helping of autistic traits.

I don't think the Temple Grandins of the world are just nerds, and I
think you're doing them a serious disservice by pretending they might
be.

However, it is absolutely the case that there is a strong correlation
between high IQ and social dysfunction -- and I'm not talking about
Asperger's or autism here.

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry@piermont.com


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:43 MDT