This was an interesting read. There were two steps in this reasoning that really tripped me up, though. The first to me seems to be a flaw. The second, I’d love to see more info on.
1) you seem very quick to dismiss the factor of “Jewish culture,” without giving it the same inspection as any other theory. Ashkenazi Jewish culture is definitely not the same as Sephardi Jewish culture (or any other type), so just noting that this effect seems to be primarily Ashkenazi isn’t enough to invalidate the theory. Not to mention the other factors you bring up later about how regions associated with Ashkenazi Jews were the main ones really fostering enough Jewish wealth and development to be conducive to this kind of academic intelligence. And the simple fact that Ashkenazim make up 80% of the worlds Jews would account for this effect skewing Ashkenazi. (Not sure if the numbers were different during the period in question, but I figure probably similar— Ashkenazim are often discussed as the large majority). And the remainder are not mostly Sephardi. More are Mizrahi (Jews who stayed in the Middle East and North Africa), a group which did not have remotely the same opportunities to go into academia as the European Jews.
In quick support of culture as a theory, Judaism overall is a religion which encourages far more doubt/questioning than many other religions, especially Christianity. It’s not exactly shocking that for a religion like Christianity, where doubt is sin or originates with the devil, the skepticism necessary for good research might not come as naturally. Conversely, in a culture where rabbis spend hundreds of years debating minutiae just for the sake of debating and a regular practice of studying Torah is to try to find interesting patterns or loopholes or alternate interpretations just to see things from all angles, careers in research might seem appealing. Plus, there may be an argument to be made about how a religion where faith tends to be a little less central compared to Christianity might encourage better thinkers. Or about what kinds of work ethics are valued in different religious cultures, though it starts to get a little messy and circular at this point.
Plus, there is other evidence of religious culture as educational choices and wealth even when the genetic factor doesn’t serve as an appropriate alternative theory. The whole “Protestant work ethic” is highly controversial and probably not worth considering as it’s own theory, but there are some more promising studies which seem to indicate interesting differences between educational outcomes for women of different religious groups (the focus on women is because of the theory that women are much more significantly impacted by religious norms due to religious gender roles). This study shows both high Jewish performance and high “Liberal and Eastern Religions,” (clarified to be the rather broad category of UU, agnostics, Buddhists, etc) which share some of the cultural points I mentioned above. It also delves into a few more cultural explanations for other differences observed. This example is a bit crude and doesn’t have the ideal methodology for eliminating other factors, but it and others like it seem to point to something cultural that we’d be failing to appropriately consider if we dismissed culture so incredibly quickly as irrelevant. I haven’t done a deep dive into the research here, but at bare minimum it seems to be more than nothing and worth thinking about for a few moments longer than it takes to say “but we don’t see this in Sephardim so it’s not cultural.”
The genetic points are certainly interesting, but the cultural theory ought to be given proper consideration too.
2) Do no other genetic diseases which impair people physically but not mentally have the effect of increased IQ? It seems intuitive to me that people with certain types of physical impairment would seek out more cognitive careers to ensure financial stability as very little else would be readily available to them. It seems similarly intuitive that physical impairment leaves people to focus more on their mental and intellectual pursuits. Higher IQ would correlate with these efforts. But I’m absolutely no expert. Very quick google search showed a correlation between gout and high IQ, which as far as I know is not associated with Jews. But if someone has more clarity on this I would appreciate it!
I’ve often heard and seen the divide people are talking about where people involved in the tech world are a lot more skeptical than your average non-tech friend. I’m curious what people think is the reason for this. Is the main claim that people in tech have been lulled into a false sense of security by familiarity? Or perhaps that they look down on safety concerns as coming from a lay audience scared by Terminator or vague sci fi ideas without understanding the technology deeply enough?