• Natural selection making 'education genes' rarer, says Icelandic study
    36 replies, posted
[quote] Tempting as it may be, it would be wrong to claim that with each generation humans are becoming more stupid. As scientists are often so keen to point out, it is a bit more complicated than that. A study from Iceland is the latest to raise the prospect of a downwards spiral into imbecility. The research from deCODE, a genetics firm in Reykjavik, finds that groups of genes that predispose people to spend more years in education became a little rarer in the country from 1910 to 1975. [/quote] [url]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jan/16/natural-selection-making-education-genes-rarer-says-icelandic-study[/url]
So this applies only to Iceland, where people who are more educated probably left to the US/mainland Europe. Seems really sketchy.
Please don't give any more fuel to the people here who think that Idiocracy was a documentary.
-nvm i dont want to distract from topic.
[QUOTE=Svinnik;51687006]So this applies only to Iceland, where people who are more educated probably left to the US/mainland Europe. Seems really sketchy.[/QUOTE] [quote]But the genes involved in education affected fertility too. Those who carried more “education genes” tended to have fewer children than others. This led the scientists to propose that the genes had become rarer in the population because, for all their qualifications, better educated people had contributed less than others to the Icelandic gene pool.[/quote] This dysgenic phenomenon has been documented before. People who are of higher intelligence and are more educated tend to have fewer children compared to people of lower intelligence and less education. This is also true (relatedly) for wealth: people with greater wealth tend to have fewer children compared to people with less wealth. Also worth noting: [quote]Robert Plomin, a behavioural geneticist at King’s College London said that the paper was a demonstration of how polygenic scores – which measure a person’s genetic strengths and weaknesses – are at the frontline of the DNA revolution. “They have already changed science and will soon affect the clinic and society,” he said. “Although the effect of the polygenic score for educational attainment on fertility is weak and needs replication in populations other than Iceland, this study is a harbinger for the new directions in research that will be possible as bigger and better polygenic scores come online,” Plomin added[/quote] Not sketchy in the slightest. Needs further investigation, but this is still an important study and worth consideration.
[QUOTE=Govna;51687065]This dysgenic phenomenon has been documented before. People who are of higher intelligence and are more educated tend to have fewer children compared to people of lower intelligence and less education. This is also true (relatedly) for wealth: people with greater wealth tend to have fewer children compared to people with less wealth. [/QUOTE] It's simple all we need to do is get all the really smart people and make them bang like rabbits.
If nerds are so smart, how come they can't figure out how to get laid??
[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51687207]This doesn't make sense. What "gene" is it? Do they take into account poor people are more likely to be uneducated? And that there are growing numbers of poor people than there are middle and upper class? Too vague. For example: What does that mean? Is there a gene that gives you the urge to graduate high school?[/QUOTE]idk man maybe ur just too dumb to understand it
This is why Eve Online will never be balanced [editline]18th January 2017[/editline] It's also why my mother got accused of [I]planning [/I]to steal a doormat while she was an exchange student there
so the dummies fuck like rabbits, while the smarties keep to themselves? [img]http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160504160857-03-donald-trump-0504-large-169.jpg[/img] ayy
[QUOTE=Reds;51687007]Please don't give any more fuel to the people here who think that Idiocracy was a documentary.[/QUOTE] What the fuck man It's gonna take me at least seven whole viewings of Fight Club to forget you just said this dumb shit
[QUOTE=DELL;51687161]It's simple all we need to do is get all the really smart people and make them bang like rabbits.[/QUOTE] Or potentially isolate those genes and work them into a "patch" of sorts to be offered to potential parents, so that their children may possess the higher intelligence needed to help fix this moribund world. Even though this study is from Iceland, a country with such a tight-knit population that strangers hooking up often need to check if they're actually related, if this phenomenon is actually plausible to occur in more "continental" gene pools, I wouldn't be too surprised. Though I would still recommend that we further the notion of being able to "design" one's child, within reason of course, and incorporate traits that would help them greatly in the modern world.
[QUOTE=Reds;51687007]Please don't give any more fuel to the people here who think that Idiocracy was a documentary.[/QUOTE] Okay, but I'm almost certain 1984 and Farenheit 451 are historical novels.
[QUOTE=DELL;51687161]It's simple all we need to do is get all the really smart people and make them bang like rabbits.[/QUOTE] Smart people bang like rabbits all the time. They just choose not to have children more often than not, because a lot of them think the world's heading in too shitty a direction to bring kids into.
[QUOTE=archangel125;51687649]Smart people bang like rabbits all the time. They just choose not to have children more often than not, because a lot of them think the world's heading in too shitty a direction to bring kids into.[/QUOTE] I mean, they might not be entirely wrong with that assumption.
[QUOTE=archangel125;51687649]Smart people bang like rabbits all the time. They just choose not to have children more often than not, because a lot of them think the world's heading in too shitty a direction to bring kids into.[/QUOTE] I don't really understand people who don't have children because they think the world is too shitty.. It just seems so insanely melodramatic. If somebody doesn't want to deal with raising children, sure, but the idea that there are people out there that might enjoy having children but choose not to because "this is no world to raise children in.." is just goofy. Things are fine, and will continue to be fine, until we're extinct.
[QUOTE=srobins;51688020]I don't really understand people who don't have children because they think the world is too shitty.. It just seems so insanely melodramatic. If somebody doesn't want to deal with raising children, sure, but the idea that there are people out there that might enjoy having children but choose not to because "this is no world to raise children in.." is just goofy. Things are fine, and will continue to be fine, until we're extinct.[/QUOTE] The planet's climate is destabilizing beyond all hope of saving because we as a species did fuck all when we had a chance to take action, the most powerful scientific, economic and military superpower on earth just elected a compulsive liar, an empty-headed narcissist and a populist demagogue (Who is probably a Russian puppet anyway) as president, people are losing respect for science and value feeling over facts (See: Brexit, US Elections), the economy is complete garbage with a shrinking middle class and a growing working class while the richest people in the world continue to dodge taxes and hoard wealth, and both Russia and the US are either looking at or have already started rebuilding their nuclear stockpiles. Things are shit, will continue to be shit, and our species is probably going to send itself back to the stone age in a few generations' time. The entire human species is shit. Fuck bringing kids into such a world. Perhaps China and India, which are both developing at a great rate and implementing positive reforms, can carry the torch forward as the West continues its decline towards its ultimate fall. If the West and Russia don't start a global nuclear war in this century. Time will tell.
[QUOTE=archangel125;51688141]The planet's climate is destabilizing beyond all hope of saving because we as a species did fuck all when we had a chance to take action, the most powerful scientific, economic and military superpower on earth just elected a compulsive liar, an empty-headed narcissist and a populist demagogue (Who is probably a Russian puppet anyway) as president, people are losing respect for science and value feeling over facts (See: Brexit, US Elections), the economy is complete garbage with a shrinking middle class and a growing working class while the richest people in the world continue to dodge taxes and hoard wealth, and both Russia and the US are either looking at or have already started rebuilding their nuclear stockpiles. Things are shit, will continue to be shit, and our species is probably going to send itself back to the stone age in a few generations' time. The entire human species is shit. Fuck bringing kids into such a world. Perhaps China and India, which are both developing at a great rate and implementing positive reforms, can carry the torch forward as the West continues its decline towards its ultimate fall. If the West and Russia don't start a global nuclear war in this century. Time will tell.[/QUOTE] Might as well just kill yourself with that attitude [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Flaming" - Novangel))[/highlight]
[I]stupid science bitch couldn't even make I more smarter [/I]
Smart people need to have more babies instead of dumb people.
i think natural selection works a little differently for the modern man than it does a frog in the amazon. its not survival of the fittest for humans.
[QUOTE=Pat.Lithium;51688418]i think natural selection works a little differently for the modern man than it does a frog in the amazon. its not survival of the fittest for humans.[/QUOTE] It is, because 'survival of the fittest' doesn't mean 'fit [in terms of absolute performance]' but 'fitting [the environmental circumstances]'.
[QUOTE=Pat.Lithium;51688418]i think natural selection works a little differently for the modern man than it does a frog in the amazon. its not survival of the fittest for humans.[/QUOTE] If that's true, then why are frogs so stupid? Fit in evolutionary sense means "fit to continue lineage in its environment". Not "my preferred set of qualities". The study just means that propensity to study long may or may not correlate well with actual fitness.
[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51687207]This doesn't make sense. What "gene" is it? Do they take into account poor people are more likely to be uneducated? And that there are growing numbers of poor people than there are middle and upper class? Too vague. For example: What does that mean? Is there a gene that gives you the urge to graduate high school?[/QUOTE] "Genetically predisposed to have a lot of education", yes because it's your genes which determine the quality and level of education available to you, not where you live and how much money you have.
[quote]“Taken together, the 74 genetic variants explain roughly half of 1% of the variation across individuals in educational attainment,”[/quote] sensationalism [editline]18th January 2017[/editline] [url]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/11/genes-that-influence-how-long-you-stay-in-education-uncovered-by-study[/url] i mean, they even link to this
please stop rubbing it in edit: wait it's not showing my flag there goes my hilarious joke
[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;51688535]"Genetically predisposed to have a lot of education", yes because it's your genes which determine the quality and level of education available to you, not where you live and how much money you have.[/QUOTE] Genes influence your intelligence quotient as much as they do your ability to do well in school based off of your personality: how motivated you are, confident, etc. [url=http://www.pnas.org/content/111/42/15273]There was a study done on over 13,000 twins in the United Kingdom examining this topic in relation to GCSE results (published back in 2014)[/url]. Not to say that the quality and extent of education isn't important (personalized learning is going to be an important thing in the future if we want to advance our education system), but the genetic influences shouldn't be discounted either. In a lot of things, it's more nature than it is nurture.
Or it could be that education is so fucking expensive now.
[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;51690795]Motivation and confidence can be learned and unlearned, though.[/QUOTE] They also have a genetic component to them.
[QUOTE=srobins;51688020]I don't really understand people who don't have children because they think the world is too shitty.. It just seems so insanely melodramatic. If somebody doesn't want to deal with raising children, sure, but the idea that there are people out there that might enjoy having children but choose not to because "this is no world to raise children in.." is just goofy. Things are fine, and will continue to be fine, until we're extinct.[/QUOTE] Really, the reason people feel that way is that they want to give their children the best they can, they want their children to live good lives, have good things, and not have to worry about things that their children will have no effect over. If global warming proceeds as we imagine it will, I don't want to bring a kid into that world, I don't want my kids to have to deal with the turmoil of land becoming scarce, of food and oil shortages. But nothing bad ever actually happens right? [editline]18th January 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=bullpull;51688357]Might as well just kill yourself with that attitude [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Flaming" - Novangel))[/highlight][/QUOTE] We are currently working towards making pretty much all of our problems worse, not better. We as a society know about this, and cannot change this. We have people with more power than you or I could ever fathom making decisions that will effect the course of our race for centuries to come. But no, we can't acknowledge that or else we get posts like this.
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