8008
>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