Gently Passing
Registered Senior Member
Shockingly, Nobel Prize winner Dr. James Watson (of the Watson-Crick model) has suggested that certain humans (Africans) test below the threshold for mental retardation:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711050447.html
...this racist assertion has cost him his job and basically ended his career.
Way to go, James!
This calls into question a more important issue, that of the significance and appropriateness of the Stanford-Binet IQ test and other Western intelligence tests.
What first comes to my mind is how does one create an intelligence test anyway?
I can measure the intelligence of a dog fairly easily. I can run them around an obstacle with a piece of food in hand. Keeping pace with them so they can never see me nor catch up and get the food, are they bright enough to turn around and go the other direction?
One of my mutts is quite bright and will do exactly that. The other? Sadly, no.
But human intelligence is a much more complex issue. And how does one measure the intellect of someone smarter than they are? Einstein, for instance?
I guarantee you Einstein's IQ dwarfs Binet's.
So how accurate would Binet's figure be in that case?
And what would be the result? 200? 235? :shrug:
Who cares?
Einstein is one thing. His intelligence (biased and educated in a similar fashion to Binet's) would be comparable if measured in such a fashion.
But if you handed a random American a Chinese IQ test, in Chinese, what would be the results? 4?
I guess Americans are dumber than Chinese. :bugeye:
This is exactly the scenario Dr. Watson is proposing, that Africans are "dumb" because they apparently don't test as well as Americans or Europeans on European intelligence tests.
Well no shit, shirlock! I vote we give Watson an African test. I'd love to see how his dumb ass compares to an African by their standards, based on the things that they value and learn as they develop in their culture.
I guarantee he would be retarded or worse on such a test. He has proven quite conclusively that he is at least partially retarded. (Nobel Prize not withstanding.)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711050447.html
...this racist assertion has cost him his job and basically ended his career.
Way to go, James!
This calls into question a more important issue, that of the significance and appropriateness of the Stanford-Binet IQ test and other Western intelligence tests.
What first comes to my mind is how does one create an intelligence test anyway?
I can measure the intelligence of a dog fairly easily. I can run them around an obstacle with a piece of food in hand. Keeping pace with them so they can never see me nor catch up and get the food, are they bright enough to turn around and go the other direction?
One of my mutts is quite bright and will do exactly that. The other? Sadly, no.
But human intelligence is a much more complex issue. And how does one measure the intellect of someone smarter than they are? Einstein, for instance?
I guarantee you Einstein's IQ dwarfs Binet's.
So how accurate would Binet's figure be in that case?
And what would be the result? 200? 235? :shrug:
Who cares?
Einstein is one thing. His intelligence (biased and educated in a similar fashion to Binet's) would be comparable if measured in such a fashion.
But if you handed a random American a Chinese IQ test, in Chinese, what would be the results? 4?
I guess Americans are dumber than Chinese. :bugeye:
This is exactly the scenario Dr. Watson is proposing, that Africans are "dumb" because they apparently don't test as well as Americans or Europeans on European intelligence tests.
Well no shit, shirlock! I vote we give Watson an African test. I'd love to see how his dumb ass compares to an African by their standards, based on the things that they value and learn as they develop in their culture.
I guarantee he would be retarded or worse on such a test. He has proven quite conclusively that he is at least partially retarded. (Nobel Prize not withstanding.)
