Re: Is IQ usefully predictive? (and not in this case)

From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sat Aug 25 2001 - 13:45:05 MDT


"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> From: "John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
> > So what did this "prodigious intellect" accomplish in his 46 years?
> > He wrote a book about streetcar transfers, that's about it.
> > It seems high IQ and genius are not quite synonymous.
>
> Hmmm... I guess we'll have to call off Vernor Vinge's Singularity.
> A superhuman intellect may do nothing more than write a footnote to Abraham
> Sterling's book.
> And a lump of computronium the size of our galaxy might only get up enough
> gumption to plagiarize half of Douglas Adams' famous "42" by writing "21."
> "Sitting quietly, doing nothing" may turn out to be the smartest advice after
> all.

Well, since in the grandest scheme of things, nothing matters, we are
just a statistical fluke, the most efficient thing is to do nothing...

Of course, I've often wondered why numerologists haven't figured out
Adams' joke. 42 is ascii for "DB", or database. The answer to life, the
universe, and everything can certainly be found in a database.... you
just need to know which one. ;)



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