Genetic brains:
Well the word is out. (The 3 % Solution ECONOMIST vol. 411 no.8886 May 10 page 77) They have found a single gene the possession of which raises your IQ by six points. They have also found that high IQ genes tend to occur together. In other words populations have been selected for proficiency in abstract reasoning. Evolution has spoken. Period. Full stop. Any further debate as to whether there is a genetic component to IQ must await massive new and surprising evidence.
Of course from my own perspective the whole issue is beside the point. As long as we don’t have enough babies for us to survive, it matters little how bright we are (and my impression alas is “not very bright at all”) and what we do about it (and I say “nothing at all; let everybody compete on a level playing field”).
But it does go to show that we are at the mercy of our genetic makeup to a far greater degree than some of us once thought. And that goes for fertility as well. We need to understand to a far greater degree than I myself understand just how genetics and in particular epigenetics affects our fertility. Once some of us know, then everybody needs to know or we are guilty of leaving them enslaved to their misconceptions. After that, as with IQ, leave them to do whatever they jolly well want to do.
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