A Thousand Chinese Einsteins Every Year

TCS Daily ^ | 02 Oct 2007 | James Miller

[SatinDoll]

This would be a great deal of effort for a small return, especially as the existing bell curve of intelligence, both for India as well as China, already produces a large number of high IQ individuals.

Each country has over a billion people. A bell curve would demonstrate that in each population at least two-hundred million to three-hundred million people are of above normal intelligence. Thus the number with high IQs possibly equals the total U.S. population.

Since both nations have a highly selective education system (socialist education systems) high achievers are noticed early on and encouraged. I believe those governments pick up the tab for university educations.

[Secret Agent Man]

SO idiot parents are going to rush to create children that are smarter than them by age 10. Right.

Liberal parents will kill themselves when they find out the kids are conservative, God-fearing and unable to be coerced by emotions rather than logic.

[Red Badger]

Well, HYPER, anyway.......

[ozzymandus]

Yeah, I’ve heard this before, but they still can’t build a motorcycle that runs.

[Abathar]

Wasn't Einstein considered retarded by his early teachers and he couldn't even count out the proper change for bus fare?

Imagine a world full of people like that, brilliant but stupid as hell at the same time.

(Wait, Washington DC comes to mind...)

[Teacher317]

Just because one might have the ability of an Einstein doesn’t mean that they will have the same success or contributions. It takes a lot more than mere genes to impact the entirety of mankind’s knowledge base.

[null and void]

I’m surprised that some “Dear Leader”, somewhere, is not alredy forcing every woman in the country to do their patriotic duty and carry his sons.

Remember Elian Gonzales? Didn't you think it was a little odd that no DNA paternity test was done before he was sent back to Cuber?

One FReeper, whose screen name eludes me at the moment, asserted that Elian was a test tube baby, conceived with a mixture of the father of record and Fidel's semen, and that this was SOP for Cuba's socialized medicine system...

[tx_eggman]

Imagine a world full of people like that, brilliant but stupid as hell at the same time.

(Wait, Washington DC comes to mind...)

No, that would only be stupid ... there's not ienough brilliance in that city to power a 10 watt bulb

[T-Bird45]

If it turns out that there is a generic predisposition to “religious belief”, and you believe that the non-religious are doomed to eternal damnation, would it be moral NOT to select for children likely to be religious?

I have a tough time imagining the scenario you describe because my view is that "religious belief" resides within the soul of every human, even those that have chosen to deny the existence of God or the human soul. Indeed, those that appear in strong denial about these matters actually have have a deeper spirituality than some that are in church every time the doors are open. They have made the choice to explore that spirituality with a focus on the denial of the nature of humanity.

Back to your question: the moral choice is always a choice of life because my life experience has shown me that human choices and the associated consequences have a stronger influence on the life hereafter. John Calvin did not become a believer in predisposition of the soul because of genetics, rather he was observing the human condition and arriving at conclusions based upon his reading of Scripture.

[Centurion2000]

Or a lot of gay Chinese.............

Gay Chinese Einstein wannabes .....
I HATE Gay Chinese Einstein wannabes

[GovernmentShrinker]

The important thing with these technologies is to maintain individual freedom in using them. All the horror-story scenarios involve government programs forcing people to use these technologies in the way the government wants. Left to their own devices, some people will pick the smartest genes, some will pick the pretty genes, some will pick the athletic genes, some will pick the musical genes, and it will all average out a nice diverse society that’s generally healthier and smarter than the current one. Not a bad thing IMO.

As for the vision of China forcibly churning out millions of super-geniuses, I can’t think of a more sure-fire way to bring down the current regime. Those engineered smarty-pants will be a heck of lot smarter than the ideologue-bureaucrats who arranged for them to be born, and are highly unlikely to be interested in pursuing the goals that the ideologue-bureaucrats had in mind. And they’ll be plenty smart enough to get what they want.

[RightWhale]

If IQ is the right measure, there are a million Einsteins walking around right now in the USA and four million in China.

[El Cid]

If it turns out that there is a generic predisposition to “religious belief”, and you believe that the non-religious are doomed to eternal damnation, would it be moral NOT to select for children likely to be religious?

For by Grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourself: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast'...

And as it is written elsewhere:

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

So your question is based on an impossible presupposition. Grace is Grace, it isn't in the genetic code, nor something conjured up by the best efforts of man. It is the gift of God.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

So come.