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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   25031 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 11, 2026

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Heritability would be the dominant form of the equation, but you also can’t factor out the epigenetic influence (I would think)

In the 2000s and 2010s there was massive hype and hopium around human epigenetics being A Thing, largely to fight against the crimethink that the variance in traits such as cognitive ability could be primarily explained by heritability. This hype and hopium had already mostly died down by the late 2010s/early 2020s.

Incidentally what does the equation say about people of exceptionally gifted talents that have no known biological pedigree found within their family ancestry?

It doesn't directly nor does it need to. The usual parent-offspring equation (Y = a + bx + e, basically almost the simplest linear regression one can think of) and the normal distribution describe it well. Exceptionally gifted parents tend to have more gifted children, on average, than unremarkable parents. However, unremarkable parents far outnumber exceptionally gifted people. Thus, it'd be no surprise that exceptionally gifted people sometimes come from unremarkable families.

I remember that time as well. Quite well in fact and immediately knew it was being over hyped and sold by the media; probably on purpose.

Only 1%-2% of genes code for traits. The rest you can resign to the scrap heap, whatever else (which is still an enormous amount) is involved in genetic expression (epigenetics). That’s all I mean to emphasize. I’m not at all taking the form of an argument produced for the target audience you’re referring to. But even so, the argument does nothing to rebut the importance of epigenetics, properly understood.

The side note about gifted children I meant more about the emergence and origin of these traits from a lineage of unremarkable people. Are they simply dormant or latent because of epigenetic suppression? If you look at a Michael Jordan for instance, there was nothing to suggest in his biological lineage that he would’ve been the kind of person he was. Just in raw genetic factors alone his brother was 5’8, which is quite the contrast. Same with a LeBron James. So what gives in that instance?

Only 2%-3% of genes code for traits. The rest you can resign to the scrap heap, whatever else (which is still an enormous amount) is involved in genetic expression (epigenetics).

It sounds like you are confusing protein-coding regions of the genome for regions of the genome that influence traits. Non-coding regions of the genome also do stuff including gene expression (gene expression is very much not a synonym for epigenetics, which pertains to gene expression insofar it doesn't involve alterations in the genome). Both coding and non-coding regions of the genome are passed down to offspring via heritability.

In a basketball context, to dismiss non-coding regions of the genome would be to dismiss efficient-off-ball-scoring, rebounding, assists, and defense.

The side note about gifted children I meant more about the emergence and origin of these traits from a lineage of unremarkable people. Are they simply dormant or latent because of epigenetic suppression? If you look at a Michael Jordan for instance, there was nothing to suggest in his biological lineage that he would’ve been the kind of person he was. Just in raw genetic factors alone his brother was 5’8, which is quite the contrast. Same with a LeBron James. So what gives in that instance?

My previous comment already addressed this. As a side-note, Jordan and his brother Larry is a well-known man-bites-dog story. Yet, Larry may be 5'8" (listed 5'9") but he also displayed an incredible leaping ability, well beyond an unremarkable person, such that he was an UNC basketball player himself. James's familial history is unclear, given his mother's... background.

It sounds like you are confusing protein-coding regions of the genome for regions of the genome that influence traits. Non-coding regions of the genome also do stuff including gene expression (gene expression is very much not a synonym for epigenetics, which pertains to gene expression insofar it doesn't involve alterations in the genome). Both coding and non-coding regions of the genome are passed down to offspring via heritability.

Literally every word of this is exactly what I’ve said the whole entire time.

Epigenetics and gene expression doesn’t biologically “edit DNA,” all I’m saying is it regulates genetic expression (literally the definition). The question I’m asking is a very simple one and I can’t fathom how it’s not being understood. Take any traits you want that have a known genetic link: eidetic memory, mathematical ability, extreme height, etc., that we normally associate with “geniuses” of one kind of another. A lot of the time when you examine what can be known of their ancestry, there are often ‘zero’ links to those same traits found in their parents or distant ancestors. So either, that pedigree ‘is’ there and it’s somehow being overlooked and not noticed / suppressed via epigenetic mechanisms (environmental stress, deficient biological development, other impacts, etc.) or it just spontaneously arose in the random shuffling of genes that happens in every human being that produces an exotic combination of edge traits. The question I’m asking is on what side of the ledger does the answer to that question (where do these traits come from?) owe more to? The former or the latter? It’s a question about the properties of inheritance.

In a basketball context, to dismiss non-coding regions of the genome would be to dismiss efficient-off-ball-scoring, rebounding, assists, and defense.

Again, that’s not what I’m saying or asking.

Only 2%-3% of genes code for traits.

The molecular guys probably fucked that one up because 50>% of behavior variance is explained by genetic variance. They don't really have good evidence for that claim any more than psychologists have good evidence for anything they teach the teenagers. And of course we are not allowed to teach the teenagers quantitative genetics, which produces voting citizens with a knowledge base like you. But maybe the two facts are jointly true. I suspect though that the entire DNA being about 800 megabytes, means that 2% actually being code leave 4 megabytes, and I feel like a lot more than 4 megabytes.

… Eh. Are you telling me you weren’t aware that only between 1%-2% of genes in human beings code for proteins? This is something that’s taught in the intro chapters of almost every introductory genomics textbook I’ve ever seen.

Are you telling me you weren’t aware that only between 1%-2% of genes in human beings code for proteins?

Uh no, it was spoonfed to me in school just like you. Unless you picked it up from an even worse source, like a podcast or youtube video. Lol.

This is something that’s taught in the intro chapters of almost every introductory genomics textbook I’ve ever seen.

Yes and most claims in most psychology textbooks are false. I'm telling you that the textbook-for-teens is not trustworthy. I suspect the 2% coding region claim has something wrong with it, just like emotional intelligence and Freudianism.

Not only will you continue to find this in mainstream biology textbooks, a simple Google prompt will return you the same result. I’m not even sure you and I are talking about the same thing at this point. I don’t know what this has to do with psychology per your response, and you and I are probably in agreement with each other there. Psychology is fraught with all kinds of bad science that’s been known for quite awhile.

I'm saying the undergrad biology books are probably flawed.

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