Re: Better people

Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Fri, 4 Jun 1999 22:27:26 -0700

Better yet, it's a combination of these things listed. Gina "Nanogirl"
>
>>Is this a serious requests for references on the >genetic influence of
>>human
>>performance? [the list is BIG] Or are you asserting >that there is "NO"
>>gentic differentiation?
>>I would question the word "most" in the previous >reply,however.
>
> I have read various articles about intelligence which favor genetics
>and others which favor environment as the larger cause for whether a person
>is intelligent or creative or not. Personally, I think that as long as
>genetics has provided you with a working brain, that the rest is pretty
much
>up to you. A favorable, stimulating environment helps, but the lack of such
>can be made up for.
>
> No one in my family is anywhere near as intelligent or creative as I
>am. I am pretty sure that I was not switched at the hospital, so unless I
am
>a throwback to some forgotten genius in the mists of my family's ancient
>history, I figure that I did not INHERIT my intellect. Likewise, the
>environment that I grew up in was very far from encouraging.
>
> As a very small child, my earliest perception about myself and others
>was of a fundamental difference. It was "intelligence" (even if I did not
>yet know the word, I had the feeling of it). I consciously took on the
>purpose and ambition of enhancing this difference. As a child, this meant
>study, greedily taking in whatever knowledge that I could get. As I got
>older, I started to think more about intelligence itself: clear and
>efficient perception, cognition and communication. So, from then to now, I
>have played around with memory improvement, semantics, creativity
>enhancement, brain nutrition and so on.
>
> Anyway, the point of this biography is that my intellect is a product
>of neither my genes nor my environment. That is even more true for my
>aesthetics, values and purposes. I may be very rare in this; but certainly
>not unique. I would rank genetics as the least important factor, then
>environment and then self-determinism as the most important factor of all.
>
> With equal "evidence" available to support seemingly contradictory
>theories, I look to my own experience. Of course, if geneticists can grow a
>"better" brain, that would certainly make a difference.
>
> Zero
>
>
>Telesis Foundation for Applied Memetics
>http://telesis.veindance.com
>
>CHAOSMOS: The Product is The Process
>http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/ubergoo/chaosmos.html
>
>
>
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