Okay sure. I’m certainly not arguing that there is no variation in human intelligence or emotional make-up. Indeed it is probably supremely likely that there are indeed mutants born with “high anger levels”, whatever that is supposed to mean, While I am not a geneticist and can’t speak for the genetic complexity of that particular set of mutations, there’s a lot of humans and it seems like something in that vein is as least as likely in 1 in 5 billion, so there’s bound to be a couple of them around. It was sloppy writing I suppose, but the implication wasn’t that no mutants with high anger levels exist, just that the hypothetical person in the example in all probability isn’t one of them. I was working within the framework of an existing metaphor, not making my own original research claim about angry mutants.
I still feel like there’s a large discrepancy between how anger and intelligence are discussed in the two articles. I feel like intelligence is given an ontological weight, that anger is not granted. If you met John Conway at a summer camp, or better yet, some no-name kid who nonetheless carried on a brilliant conversation with you, dazzling you with insights you’d never imagined, would you also tell yourself, “This particular episode of intelligent behavior is not as strong a piece of evidence that this person has intelligent tendencies as my brain wants to treat it.”? If you would, then when you read The Level Above Mine and the following posts do you feel like that filter is being carefully applied? If you would not, then why is there a difference between intelligence and anger?
there are indeed mutants born with “high anger levels”, whatever that is supposed to mean
Maybe think animal taming, and the ways tame animals ended up different from wild ones. Taming seems to work way too fast to rely on only new mutations, so there’s probably existing genetic variation on aggressiveness in the starting population it can use.
I still feel like there’s a large discrepancy between how anger and intelligence are discussed in the two articles. I feel like intelligence is given an ontological weight, that anger is not granted.
Anger is much more situational thing, so maybe you should talk about temperament instead, as the relatively stable emotional makeup of person that affects how easily they become angry. Having high intelligence can make you do behaviors that are very improbable otherwise, like proving Fermat’s conjecture. But there can be many causes that lead to quite a similar fit of anger, both a large stimulus and a calm temperament and a small stimulus and an anger-prone temperament will work. So I don’t see the problem with the argument. If I see Alice proving Fermat’s conjecture, Alice being very intelligent is the only solid hypothesis I have. If I see Bob angrily kicking a vending machine, both Bob having a hair-trigger temperament and Bob having had a very bad day are plausible hypotheses.
I still feel like there’s a large discrepancy between how anger and intelligence are discussed in the two articles.
Intelligence really is more fixed than “anger”. Anger is an emotion, and even people highly inclined toward anger are not angry all (or even most of) the time. To put it plainly, you are more likely to come across a calm person experiencing rage, than a mentally retarded person having a conversation at Conway’s level. Do you really doubt that?
Okay sure. I’m certainly not arguing that there is no variation in human intelligence or emotional make-up. Indeed it is probably supremely likely that there are indeed mutants born with “high anger levels”, whatever that is supposed to mean, While I am not a geneticist and can’t speak for the genetic complexity of that particular set of mutations, there’s a lot of humans and it seems like something in that vein is as least as likely in 1 in 5 billion, so there’s bound to be a couple of them around. It was sloppy writing I suppose, but the implication wasn’t that no mutants with high anger levels exist, just that the hypothetical person in the example in all probability isn’t one of them. I was working within the framework of an existing metaphor, not making my own original research claim about angry mutants.
I still feel like there’s a large discrepancy between how anger and intelligence are discussed in the two articles. I feel like intelligence is given an ontological weight, that anger is not granted. If you met John Conway at a summer camp, or better yet, some no-name kid who nonetheless carried on a brilliant conversation with you, dazzling you with insights you’d never imagined, would you also tell yourself, “This particular episode of intelligent behavior is not as strong a piece of evidence that this person has intelligent tendencies as my brain wants to treat it.”? If you would, then when you read The Level Above Mine and the following posts do you feel like that filter is being carefully applied? If you would not, then why is there a difference between intelligence and anger?
Maybe think animal taming, and the ways tame animals ended up different from wild ones. Taming seems to work way too fast to rely on only new mutations, so there’s probably existing genetic variation on aggressiveness in the starting population it can use.
There’s also starting to be some research on actual high anger mutations in humans, which seem to be a bit more common than 1 in 5 billion.
Anger is much more situational thing, so maybe you should talk about temperament instead, as the relatively stable emotional makeup of person that affects how easily they become angry. Having high intelligence can make you do behaviors that are very improbable otherwise, like proving Fermat’s conjecture. But there can be many causes that lead to quite a similar fit of anger, both a large stimulus and a calm temperament and a small stimulus and an anger-prone temperament will work. So I don’t see the problem with the argument. If I see Alice proving Fermat’s conjecture, Alice being very intelligent is the only solid hypothesis I have. If I see Bob angrily kicking a vending machine, both Bob having a hair-trigger temperament and Bob having had a very bad day are plausible hypotheses.
Intelligence really is more fixed than “anger”. Anger is an emotion, and even people highly inclined toward anger are not angry all (or even most of) the time. To put it plainly, you are more likely to come across a calm person experiencing rage, than a mentally retarded person having a conversation at Conway’s level. Do you really doubt that?