If I remember correctly, Murray and Herrnstein’s conclusion was that social welfare programs to “fix” problems of education levels or socio-economic status in “under-privileged” communities were not successful. The Great Society was inherently flawed because social engineering did not lead to improved individual outcomes in terms of income, job performance, pregnancy out of wedlock, and crime.
What mattered, statistically, was IQ. Which is much harder to “fix”. People with lower IQs tended to have bad outcomes in terms of income, job performance, pregnancy out of wedlock, and crime.
Murray and Herrnstein were pretty careful to say that this was not a skin problem. It’s not really race. It’s an IQ problem. But, all studies agree that there are racial disparities when it comes to IQ. And so there is a tie between these things. But social engineering won’t fix anything.
And if one actually understands the Bell curve statistically, it doesn't matter if whites have a peak IQ a few points higher than blacks....there are still persons of high intelligence of any race. The correct approach is to judge people as individuals.
I read a few years back that the psychometricians had identified a non-verbal test that is a better predictor of overall intelligence performance than IQ, and which works even with very young children....high spatial recognition.
It turns out that the simple "put the odd-shaped blocks in the right shaped hole" (and other similar visual) test(s) correlates better than IQ with life performance. Higher than math ability OR verbal ability.
The portion of sapiens sapiens' brains that is responsible for cognitive functions weighs around 1.5 pounds. Even if this organ has multi-quadrillion neural network connections, it is still a definable, largely finite number.
Quantum computing will provide the ability to allow advanced testing, evaluation, modeling and simulation of different brain functions. Combined with genetic research and DNA modification, it should be possible - perhaps within generations - to enhance, detract or otherwise form IQ to levels sufficient to perform within objective parameters.
The holy grail of course is singularity, but in order for that occur, the steps outlined above will become trivial and commonplace. When/if it happens, it could provide the greatest social advancement to date. Imagine, individuals/groups who exhibit classic dysfunctional attributes undergoing gene therapy and emerging as 'normal', functioning members of society.