doesn’t even make the news at CNN!
I was wondering why few covered his death.
In a 2007 interview with The Sunday Times of London, James Watson said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the assumption that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really”.
RIP to one who made one of the most significant discoveries of the 20th century.
The man who opened Pandora’s box.
Grok: On October 2007 (leading to the 2008 consequences), during an interview with The Sunday Times to promote his memoir Avoid Boring People, James Watson expressed pessimism about Africa's future, stating: "I am inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really." He elaborated that he was "gloomy about Africa" due to perceived lower intelligence among Black Africans compared to Europeans, implying genetic causes for IQ differences.In January 2019, during the PBS documentary American Masters: Decoding Watson, Watson was asked if his views on race and IQ had changed since 2007. He replied, "No. Not at all," adding, "I would like for them to have changed... But I haven’t seen any knowledge." He reiterated: "There’s a difference on the average between blacks and whites on IQ tests. I would say the difference is genetic." CSHL condemned these as "reprehensible, unsupported by science" and "reckless," revoking his emeritus titles and severing all ties in January 2019 (often referenced as the 2020 action in summaries, though the documentary aired in late 2018 and response was prompt). The lab emphasized that such views contradicted evidence showing IQ disparities stem from environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic factors, not genetics, and that race lacks a clear biological basis for such claims.
But don't forget Psychologist Jordan Peterson: Peterson explicitly distinguishes IQ from wisdom, arguing that high intelligence does not guarantee wise decision-making, ethical judgment, or life success. He describes wisdom as a separate trait, often acquired through experience, moral reflection, and humility, with zero correlation to IQ—not even a weak one.
High intelligence enables the acquisition of power, but without wisdom, conscientiousness, or moral grounding, it becomes tyrannical or destabilizing. He explicitly rejects the idea that "the smartest should rule" (a technocratic or Platonic philosopher-king model), calling it dangerous and historically refuted.
IOW, you can have super high IQ and be a total failure. We've entered the realm of politics, the struggle for understanding what is important. Totalitarion politics is a forceful imposition of a preferred pattern deemed important. Appeals to science, when convenient, often consider DNA or IQ more important than what is more important.
They should have cloned him.
wy69
"In a primitive society, if you saw that a baby was deformed, you would abandon it on a hillside. Today this isn't permissible, and with our medicine getting better and better in the sense of being able to keep sick people alive longer, we are going to produce more people living wretched lives. [...] If a child were not declared alive until three days after birth, then all parents could be allowed the choice that only a few are given under the present system. The doctor could allow the child to die if the parents so chose and save a lot of misery and suffering."Prism, Volume 1, Number 2 (May 1973), page 13. The magazine was an AMA initiative to explore the socio-economic implications of medicine, and the interview is archived in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Archives Repository, where Watson served as director.
May his Memory be Eternal! (However, he was an atheist, and no friend of the Orthodox Church, or even the Lutheran Church!)
I was in his department in Harvard grad school. He would not accept me as his student! (Anti-Christian bias?) However, I was accepted by someone at least as good, and received my PhD.
And I attended (and presented at!) Cold Spring Harbor Symposia as a faculty researcher. They served frog’s legs, which I loved!
Jim Watson was nasty all his life. But I believe that Cold Spring Harbor was wrong to dismiss him for racism. A simple antiracist statement would have been enough! After all, Jim Watson BUILT the modern-day Cold Spring Harbor!!
Another great, and Nobel Prize winning, molecular biologist, David Baltimore, recently passed away, with no notice from FR.
https://news.mit.edu/2025/remembering-david-baltimore-0908
Memory Eternal!
I know what his epitaph should be.
He had good genes.