Intelligence and Temperament

"I feel the pressure of the future and in this turning world must either kill it or become its master" - Lord Vetinari, Raising Steam

About all I need to know about a country is the average IQ and the GNP.

I've mentioned before that when arguments about NAFTA were raging I looked up the average IQ of Mexico (89) and the GNP (4% of the United States). Just like that, I knew the agreement had nothing to do with "free trade." What could a country with a GNP 4% of the United States buy from us? Nothing.

Not surprisingly, there is a strong correlation between IQ and GNP.

Back when there was all the Bush-babble about Iraq plotting to attack us with nuclear weapons, I looked up Iraq's GNP (1% of the U.S.'s) and the average IQ (hard to figure, but less than 90).

Again, just like that, I knew that Iraq was no threat to us. Turned out I was right.

Some of the states in the U.S. had stronger economies that Iraq. Of course, these days, Iraq doesn't exist anymore and barely has a workable economy.

Then there is temperament.

Any ethnic group that has a low IQ and an impulsive temperament is going to fill the prisons. This is common sense.

Of course, we don't need to import any more people with low IQs and impulsive temperaments. Unless we want to build more prisons.

The problems with leftists is that they believe IQ and temperament are malleable. Plastic, really, like Play-Doh. Why, with enough education we can turn morons into geniuses! It's all environment! All those working-class people laid off permanently because their jobs were exported - they can go to college and train for higher-paying jobs! Never mind the fact most of them have never read a book in their lives! Not only haven't, but can't.

The Talking Heads/Chattering Classes are always whining the working classes are voting for Trump. And they are. I also know people who are highly educated and making a lot of money and then got laid off so immigrants could replace them. Sure, they can find other high paying jobs - if they and their families move out of state. They, too, are voting for Trump.

I figure that if the very rich and very influential had their way they'd like to genetically engineer tepid-IQ, temperamentally passive people to do their blue-class jobs for them. You know, like the Epsilon Minuses of Brave New World. The retarded monkey people who spent all day operating elevators that ran from the floor to the roof?

It has turned out Aldous Huxley was far better at predicting the future than George Orwell, because Huxley noticed changing temperament and intelligence through science (the insane Stalin once charged his scientists with trying to create human-chimpanzee hybrids to use as warriors).

The best known movie about using science to create people with different intelligences and temperaments is Blade Runner, in which the "replicants" have animal DNA inserted in them - wolf, shark, raccoon, snake, turtle.

Can such insertions be done? Not yet.

Not surprisingly, the replicants were psychologically a mess.

Right now the Chinese are trying to create highly-intelligent designer babies (I tell people they're going to have to get some white DNA in them to make them smart and creative). Still, I don't think their attempts are going to work. Not that it's going to stop them.

For all practical purposes science is the new magic - except for this time it works. Now as to just how far the magic goes - we'll just have to wait and see.