I have become more and more discouraged by the blog kindly submitted here. The blog post author started out as a physicist, somehow didn't make a big mark in physics, and since then has been going into academic administration. His blog collects his unpublishable (in the scientific sense of "publishable," after peer review) thoughts about a variety of controversial issues on which he expresses opinions without as much knowledge base or professional training and experience as the older domain experts who actually research those issues. I just haven't found this blog to be a reliable source for Hacker News submissions that lead to informed, fruitful discussion. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
This has to be the nicest, most reasonable-sounding ad hominem argument I've ever seen.
But it's still an ad hominem argument. Is there any way you actually disagree with the post? What would you say to Dr. Hsu if he were in the room?
Also, what is your evidence that he's not in touch with experts in psychometrics and human genomics? I don't know him, but I have very much the contrary impression.
Also, what is your evidence that he's not in touch with experts in psychometrics and human genomics? I don't know him, but I have very much the contrary impression.
I don't know him in person but I have emailed him. He is in touch with a lot of eminent experts (I know some of the same eminent experts and see some of the regularly in person), but he hasn't imbued their worldview about human genetics, forged after years of pursuing other worldviews that don't hold up to experimental test. But your comment is fair, so I'll recommend here for you and for onlookers some writings by people who are experts in psychometrics and human behavior genetics.
The review article
Johnson, Wendy; Turkheimer, Eric; Gottesman, Irving I.; Bouchard Jr., Thomas (2009). Beyond Heritability: Twin Studies in Behavioral Research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 4, 217-220
includes the statement "Moreover, even highly heritable traits can be strongly manipulated by the environment, so heritability has little if anything to do with controllability. For example, height is on the order of 90% heritable, yet North and South Koreans, who come from the same genetic background, presently differ in average height by a full 6 inches (Pak, 2004; Schwekendiek, 2008)."
The review article
Johnson, W. (2010). Understanding the Genetics of Intelligence: Can Height Help? Can Corn Oil?. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(3), 177-182
looks at some famous genetic experiments to show how little is explained by gene frequencies even in thoroughly studied populations defined by artificial selection.
"Together, however, the developmental natures of GCA [general cognitive ability] and height, the likely influences of gene-environment correlations and interactions on their developmental processes, and the potential for genetic background and environmental circumstances to release previously unexpressed genetic variation suggest that very different combinations of genes may produce identical IQs or heights or levels of any other psychological trait. And the same genes may produce very different IQs and heights against different genetic backgrounds and in different environmental circumstances. This would be especially the case if height and GCA and other psychological traits are only single facets of multifaceted traits actually under more systematic genetic regulation, such as overall body size and balance between processing capacity and stimulus reactivity. Genetic influences on individual differences in psychological characteristics are real and important but are unlikely to be straightforward and deterministic. We will understand them best through investigation of their manifestation in biological and social developmental processes."
(The review by Johnson, by the way, is rather like Tao's understanding of how mathematical talent develops in individuals, which prompted the blog post kindly submitted here.)
A comprehensive review article for social scientists on genetic research on IQ emphasizes what is still unknown.
Chabris, C. F., Hebert, B. M., Benjamin, D. J., Beauchamp, J., Cesarini, D., van der Loos, M., ... & Laibson, D. (2012). Most reported genetic associations with general intelligence are probably false positives. Psychological science, 23(11), 1314-1323. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611435528 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498585/
"At the time most of the results we attempted to replicate were obtained, candidate-gene studies of complex traits were commonplace in medical genetics research. Such studies are now rarely published in leading journals. Our results add IQ to the list of phenotypes that must be approached with great caution when considering published molecular genetic associations. In our view, excitement over the value of behavioral and molecular genetic studies in the social sciences should be tempered—as it has been in the medical sciences—by an appreciation that, for complex phenotypes, individual common genetic variants of the sort assayed by SNP microarrays are likely to have very small effects. Associations of candidate genes with psychological traits and other traits studied in the social sciences should be viewed as tentative until they have been replicated in multiple large samples. Doing otherwise may hamper scientific progress by proliferating potentially false results, which may then influence the research agendas of scientists who do not appreciate that the associations they take as a starting point for their efforts may not be real. And the dissemination of false results to the public risks creating an incorrect perception about the state of knowledge in the field, especially the existence of genes described as being 'for' traits on the basis of unintentionally inflated estimates of effect size and statistical significance."
The newer publications on the topic are not changing the picture significantly. If one desires to develop a child's mathematical ability, for example (a problem I have pondered four times over as a parent), then the thing to do, after gaining whatever favorable shuffle of genes one can through thoughtful choice of a marriage partner, is to ensure that the child receives a sound primary education in mathematics. That is rarely done in the United States,[1] but it's something parents can do if they know mathematics well through some other channel, for example having lived in another country.
> The review article...includes the statement "Moreover, even highly heritable traits can be strongly manipulated by the environment, so heritability has little if anything to do with controllability. For example, height is on the order of 90% heritable, yet North and South Koreans, who come from the same genetic background, presently differ in average height by a full 6 inches (Pak, 2004; Schwekendiek, 2008)."
If you think this is contrary to Hsu's position, you don't understand his position.
TLDR: the researchers you admire are part of a school that disagrees with Dr. Hsu's school.
Or at least, sort of disagree. It's not that they have any results showing a method for increasing either IQ or mathematical capacity. They just don't feel that it's entirely, completely, totally and utterly proven that such a method (which the entire education industry has spent the last century searching for) doesn't exist. Well, sure. Obviously, in an empirical science, negatives are pretty hard to prove.
But let that be. Suppose your guys are totally right. It used to be, in days gone by, when perhaps the spirit of science was better understood, that everyone interested in science understood that a hundred flowers bloomed, contending schools are a great and normal thing, and scholars can disagree -- without attacking each other personally as failed physicists, college administrators, etc.
Let alone elitists, racists, and Trotskyist wreckers. Speaking of the spirit of science, and schools thereof, I wonder what your position on Professors Boas, Gould and Mead might be? Do you regard them as conclusively guilty of scientific fraud? Or do you feel that in some way the jury remains out? What do you feel Professor Turkheimer's views on the question might be?
The N. vs S. Korean example you mention is explicitly discussed in one of Hsu's articles. (Secular change in height due to improved environmental conditions.)
"Let me reiterate that within a range of favorable environments (i.e., providing good nutrition, hygiene, and access to education), evidence strongly supports the claim that individual differences in cognitive ability are largely associated with genetic differences.
Figure 8. Increase in stature in European countries over time, almost +2 SD. Nutrition, hygiene, and average number of years of schooling all improved dramatically over the last 100 years, leading to improvements in both physical and mental development."
You should probably read his paper carefully before making ad hominem attacks. Save your SJW signaling.
Practically no one makes a 'big mark in physics' anymore, unless they are a bona-fide genius. Hsu is merely very smart and hard-working, otherwise he'd not have graduated from Caltech.
> I just haven't found this blog to be a reliable source for Hacker News submissions that lead to informed, fruitful discussion.
Anything defending genetic determinism is basically flamebait. Methinks those people should stop flaming and read something on identical twins reared separately, and how they are less different from each other than siblings brought up together.
