Re: An essay I just wrote on the Singularity.

From: Perry E. Metzger (perry@piermont.com)
Date: Sat Jan 03 2004 - 00:26:17 MST


Wei Dai <weidai@weidai.com> writes:
> I'm not an expert in psychometrics, but as far as I know, IQ measures
> something that has little to do with effort.

That is the claim, but I recall a great many tests in standard IQ
suites that are perfectly improvable with learning -- everything from
pattern recognition to math questions. That's an aside, though.

> Instead, having high IQ should make both learning math/physics and
> learning social skills easier.

It isn't clear that IQ measures anything like "social intelligence",
but in any case, just because one might have an easier time learning
something doesn't mean one is necessarily motivated to do it or even
aware that there is anything to learn. Most socially inept people I
know seem oblivious to the fact that it is possible to learn social
skills if one wishes -- and if they do know it, they don't seem to be
willing to put in the effort, and it is no smaller an effort than most
major fields of human skill.

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry@piermont.com


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