The target seems to have shifted quite a bit since:
“We are not finding any IQ genes”
There are plenty of genes for IQ—if you mean “for” in the standard techincal sense used by geneticists.
The issue has apparently been switched to whether there are any known genes with moderate effect on IQ, once you have ignored all the known genes with huge effects on it. That seems to be a rather more esoteric point—which would apparently need quantifying before being discussed in more detail.
The issue hasn’t been switched, but Razib didn’t (and usually doesn’t) optimize for resistance to misinterpretation in snarky pseudo-correction comments.
Razib and Eliezer were talking about the ability to score embryos based on genomes to select for IQ. To do that, one would need to know alleles responsible for a a substantial fraction of the population variation. Genome-wide-association studies haven’t found those for IQ, where they have for, e.g. skin and eye color. Rare retardation-causing alleles that collectively explain less than 1% of that variation are a sideshow for prediction of population variation, the causes of normal variation differ. So meaningful embryo selection is feasible for skin color, but not for IQ. That’s not esoteric, that was the concrete point in discussion that inspired Razib to mention the state of the search for IQ alleles.
The target seems to have shifted quite a bit since:
“We are not finding any IQ genes”
There are plenty of genes for IQ—if you mean “for” in the standard techincal sense used by geneticists.
The issue has apparently been switched to whether there are any known genes with moderate effect on IQ, once you have ignored all the known genes with huge effects on it. That seems to be a rather more esoteric point—which would apparently need quantifying before being discussed in more detail.
The issue hasn’t been switched, but Razib didn’t (and usually doesn’t) optimize for resistance to misinterpretation in snarky pseudo-correction comments.
Razib and Eliezer were talking about the ability to score embryos based on genomes to select for IQ. To do that, one would need to know alleles responsible for a a substantial fraction of the population variation. Genome-wide-association studies haven’t found those for IQ, where they have for, e.g. skin and eye color. Rare retardation-causing alleles that collectively explain less than 1% of that variation are a sideshow for prediction of population variation, the causes of normal variation differ. So meaningful embryo selection is feasible for skin color, but not for IQ. That’s not esoteric, that was the concrete point in discussion that inspired Razib to mention the state of the search for IQ alleles.
It seems to me as though it is you who is misinterpreting my original question.