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Notes -
What would you consider to be sufficient factual evidence to shift your views on HBD in various directions?
In order for the question to make sense, it is probably helpful to think of one's position on HBD along two axes, as in the Political Compass test, and one discrete parameter that would make less sense on an axis. You're also welcome to point out omitted positions.
x-axis, ranging from 0 to 10, where moving right indicates agreement with the statement: Human populations have significantly different average levels of intelligence, and this becomes far more pronounced in the right tails of the distributions.
y-axis, same range as the x-axis, but measured as 10 * perceived percentage of genetic contribution to the difference above. If you attribute some of the difference to the interaction of genetic and environmental influences, give that half the weight for simplicity.
Parameter z: How does intelligence correlate with the moral worth of a person? This can take on one of a few values:
(-1) Negatively
(0) Not at all
(1) Positively
(i) The moral worth of a person is dependent on their actions or beliefs, and intelligence only provides bounds on their culpability or merit.
Rigorous statistical evidence that demonstrates the lack of heredity in all mental and physical characteristics. You'd have to be able to demonstrate that the intelligence of the parents has no impact on the intelligence of any children they have, across both humans and animal populations - so you're going to have to demonstrate that all animal breeding/domestication has actually just been a series of increasingly improbable coincidences. You'll need to conclusively demonstrate that familial similarity is actually a coincidental artifact of human perception with no basis in fact or reality.
I don't think you've adequately defined the moral terms you're using so I'm not going to touch that scale at all. HBD has nothing to say on matters of morality - you may as well ask whether someone's moral worth is dependent upon how good their skin is at conducting electricity.
I believe this is correct. I do believe there is data that would change my mind on HBD. I do not think there is any probability it exists.
Do I think white people just don’t want to be running backs or cornerbacks in the nfl but do have a desire to be tight ends and lineman? No. And the distribution of people who perform those jobs are so extreme that it’s mathematically impossible it’s not coming from genetics. (Current best RB in nfl is probably white and potentially best CB drafted this year is white but those are rare).
I’m not even sure if this would disprove hbd but selective breeding I guess could make the races equal across abilities. You would just need Christian McCaffrey to have a million kids and Clarence Thomas to be the sperm donor for all black kids. In 3-5 generations of doing that abilities would equal out.
But I guess that would just mean hbd is real. Environmental pressure pushing traits in groups leads to differences in groups when they were largely seperated because of geography culture (Ashkenazi separation was culture).
And we sort of see this in white people. Now that the Balkans play basketball with average male height of 6’4 they produce as high of rate or higher rate of nba players than Africans. Though they play in a different way.
One thing I have discovered in adult life is I have a lot of traits like my father - the good and the bad. That seems statistically impossible.
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