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with some intelligent counter arguments. If you don't the right tools to do
so then leave it alone. Bricky, you can give it a shot too.
Race and Intelligence
BY Patrick Blake
Sunday, October 28, 2007
James Watson's recent statements seeking to link race and intelligence only show that he is one of those scientific fossils who seems to know very little about either race or intelligence.
A person born when he received his Nobel award would be a ripe middleager by now, and if this is the best idea on cognition he can come up with, after spending many decades in a scientific field which, though not making him qualified to issue definitive statements on 'race' or cognitive capacity, should at least enable him to be an informed reader of the latest results, then one cannot dismiss the questions which have always been asked about the ways in which he acquired the information which won himself (and Francis Crick) the prize for DNA discovery.
I should not be surprised if he believes himself to be a member of the white race, yet leading scientists working on the cutting edge of genetic science are now even saying that there is no biological basis for the concept of race.
Sylvia Spengler, genetic scientist of the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the human genome project, in an interview on KRON TV said that "Trying to mix genetics and race is, to my mind, inappropriate; [it] cannot be done. race is something we do to each other; it has nothing to do with what our DNA does to us".
But what about skin colour, nose shapes and hair texture, are not these encoded in our genes? They are indeed, but these physical characteristics are only a small part of the environmentally adaptive genetic make-up of humans, who are one species.
In the case of skin colour, for example, melanin, which protects us from UV radiation, comes in shades of brown, yellow, red, and black. The mix of melanin in the variegated skin tones we present to the world is controlled by genes, but it is a very small part of genetic heritage.
Whereas the human cell has about 100,000 genes, only six out of the 100,000 control skin colour. And everyone has the same six, including the genes for black skin; this is so because all humans are descended from Africans.
According to Dr Spengler, two tall basketball players, one white, the other black, have more genes expressed in common than a short white and a tall white basketballer.
During the 1997 space probe sent over Mars, there were over 200 million Internet hits to follow its progress; under certain conditions the human brain can make 15 times that amount of connections in one second, ie over 3 billion connections in a second. No one uses but a fraction of that capacity.
With such potential, it is obviously infantile and idle for anyone to be talking about pencil and paper intelligence tests, or a lack of basic human intelligence as a reason for poverty and an obvious low quality of life in the African bush. The reasons may well lie in the same autocratic, tribal systems of group behaviour which were adaptive when Africans were the only humans on the planet and were trying to survive as viable small groups in bushlands rife with threats from tooth, fang, claw, poison, and rival human groups.
Furthermore, maybe Watson was dozing off a little when Gardner from Harvard identified seven clusters of abilities which make up a holistic picture: logical mathematical; musical; spatial/visual; kinesthetic; interpersonal and intrapersonal, and there may be many more.
Schooling systems are virtual 'gymnasia' for the development of cognitive abilities, and so it is expected that building on the science of the past eras, men like Watson will achieve something in science and technological pursuits in the circumstances; but they should not then seek to shoot wildly from the lip by appearing to invoke science where their statements are based on casual observation in ways which can induce self-fulfilling prophecies.
African civilisation is the oldest and laid the basis for civilisation of all other nations. Gold mines in southern Africa have been dated as old as 100,000 years before present. Evidence of ancient Science and Technology in Africa have baffled modern scientists who have absolutely no answer.
Gliders, and aerodynamically valid
models of jet aircraft found in tombs of Egyptian dignitaries are at this moment
being displayed in the Egyptian Museum
of antiquities.
Experts say that there is a detailed cross section of a interstellar rocketship on the tomb of Viceroy Huy, governor of Nubia and Sinai during the reign of Pharaoh Tut-Ankh-Amun. A "spike" shown in the design is similar to one that NASA had been trying out to reduce overheating without success, but apparently it worked in the African model.
The origins of these anomalies have been shrouded in mystery for decades, but it is not surprising that a continent which could produce the pyramid complex and the first catholic religious system with worldwide lodges, complex philosophical systems pre-dating the Athenians, advanced building technology, and which was regarded as the early home of the Gods by many in the ancient world, could also have these wonders of technology which, it seems, the Western world has hot yet achieved to the same extent.
Africans had presence in the Americas and introduced many 'firsts' in our part of the world before Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldees and centuries before Moses led the Exodus. Stone heads of the Olmecs (Africans from the region now called Nigeria) weighing up to 25 tons have been found in meso-America and South America and many are now in the Smithsonian and Yale, Tulane and other American universities.
As far as conquest goes, it has to be admitted that an African-Arab combine (collectively, the Moors) invaded Spain in 711. They defeated the German Visigoths, moved into France and sacked Rome. They traded in millions of white slaves and many were sold into slavery in Africa, but the trade was never at the level of the European version of the middle passage.
Skilled slaves could gain freedom by becoming Muslims. Remnants of these forces remained in Europe for 700 years till they were finally driven off by Spain in January 1492 at the battle of Granada, just before Columbus started on the first of his ambitious voyages.
Slavery, conquest, intelligence, stupidity, good, bad, behaviour, all in all, humans are one-of-a-piece.
so then leave it alone. Bricky, you can give it a shot too.
Race and Intelligence
BY Patrick Blake
Sunday, October 28, 2007
James Watson's recent statements seeking to link race and intelligence only show that he is one of those scientific fossils who seems to know very little about either race or intelligence.
A person born when he received his Nobel award would be a ripe middleager by now, and if this is the best idea on cognition he can come up with, after spending many decades in a scientific field which, though not making him qualified to issue definitive statements on 'race' or cognitive capacity, should at least enable him to be an informed reader of the latest results, then one cannot dismiss the questions which have always been asked about the ways in which he acquired the information which won himself (and Francis Crick) the prize for DNA discovery.
I should not be surprised if he believes himself to be a member of the white race, yet leading scientists working on the cutting edge of genetic science are now even saying that there is no biological basis for the concept of race.
Sylvia Spengler, genetic scientist of the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the human genome project, in an interview on KRON TV said that "Trying to mix genetics and race is, to my mind, inappropriate; [it] cannot be done. race is something we do to each other; it has nothing to do with what our DNA does to us".
But what about skin colour, nose shapes and hair texture, are not these encoded in our genes? They are indeed, but these physical characteristics are only a small part of the environmentally adaptive genetic make-up of humans, who are one species.
In the case of skin colour, for example, melanin, which protects us from UV radiation, comes in shades of brown, yellow, red, and black. The mix of melanin in the variegated skin tones we present to the world is controlled by genes, but it is a very small part of genetic heritage.
Whereas the human cell has about 100,000 genes, only six out of the 100,000 control skin colour. And everyone has the same six, including the genes for black skin; this is so because all humans are descended from Africans.
According to Dr Spengler, two tall basketball players, one white, the other black, have more genes expressed in common than a short white and a tall white basketballer.
During the 1997 space probe sent over Mars, there were over 200 million Internet hits to follow its progress; under certain conditions the human brain can make 15 times that amount of connections in one second, ie over 3 billion connections in a second. No one uses but a fraction of that capacity.
With such potential, it is obviously infantile and idle for anyone to be talking about pencil and paper intelligence tests, or a lack of basic human intelligence as a reason for poverty and an obvious low quality of life in the African bush. The reasons may well lie in the same autocratic, tribal systems of group behaviour which were adaptive when Africans were the only humans on the planet and were trying to survive as viable small groups in bushlands rife with threats from tooth, fang, claw, poison, and rival human groups.
Furthermore, maybe Watson was dozing off a little when Gardner from Harvard identified seven clusters of abilities which make up a holistic picture: logical mathematical; musical; spatial/visual; kinesthetic; interpersonal and intrapersonal, and there may be many more.
Schooling systems are virtual 'gymnasia' for the development of cognitive abilities, and so it is expected that building on the science of the past eras, men like Watson will achieve something in science and technological pursuits in the circumstances; but they should not then seek to shoot wildly from the lip by appearing to invoke science where their statements are based on casual observation in ways which can induce self-fulfilling prophecies.
African civilisation is the oldest and laid the basis for civilisation of all other nations. Gold mines in southern Africa have been dated as old as 100,000 years before present. Evidence of ancient Science and Technology in Africa have baffled modern scientists who have absolutely no answer.
Gliders, and aerodynamically valid
models of jet aircraft found in tombs of Egyptian dignitaries are at this moment
being displayed in the Egyptian Museum
of antiquities.
Experts say that there is a detailed cross section of a interstellar rocketship on the tomb of Viceroy Huy, governor of Nubia and Sinai during the reign of Pharaoh Tut-Ankh-Amun. A "spike" shown in the design is similar to one that NASA had been trying out to reduce overheating without success, but apparently it worked in the African model.
The origins of these anomalies have been shrouded in mystery for decades, but it is not surprising that a continent which could produce the pyramid complex and the first catholic religious system with worldwide lodges, complex philosophical systems pre-dating the Athenians, advanced building technology, and which was regarded as the early home of the Gods by many in the ancient world, could also have these wonders of technology which, it seems, the Western world has hot yet achieved to the same extent.
Africans had presence in the Americas and introduced many 'firsts' in our part of the world before Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldees and centuries before Moses led the Exodus. Stone heads of the Olmecs (Africans from the region now called Nigeria) weighing up to 25 tons have been found in meso-America and South America and many are now in the Smithsonian and Yale, Tulane and other American universities.
As far as conquest goes, it has to be admitted that an African-Arab combine (collectively, the Moors) invaded Spain in 711. They defeated the German Visigoths, moved into France and sacked Rome. They traded in millions of white slaves and many were sold into slavery in Africa, but the trade was never at the level of the European version of the middle passage.
Skilled slaves could gain freedom by becoming Muslims. Remnants of these forces remained in Europe for 700 years till they were finally driven off by Spain in January 1492 at the battle of Granada, just before Columbus started on the first of his ambitious voyages.
Slavery, conquest, intelligence, stupidity, good, bad, behaviour, all in all, humans are one-of-a-piece.
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