I’ve kind of used them interchangeably throughout the post, though I prefer to use “intelligence” to describe what we are actually aiming for: increasing the ability of individuals to accomplish goals given a set of constraints. There are highly g-loaded tests such as IQ tests or SAT scores that capture g well but don’t always translate to real-world performance.
Part of the challenge for any genetic engineering program will be figuring out how to robustly measure traits we want to change. IQ test are highly g-loaded, but they can be gamed. I remember reading a study (I can’t find it now) showing that if you trained people on IQ test you could increase their scores by like 15 points, which shows that IQ scores can become decoupled from g. Ideally we’d like a test that can’t be gamed.
Interesting. Is g and intelligence the same thing? If not, how do they relate to each other?
I’ve kind of used them interchangeably throughout the post, though I prefer to use “intelligence” to describe what we are actually aiming for: increasing the ability of individuals to accomplish goals given a set of constraints. There are highly g-loaded tests such as IQ tests or SAT scores that capture g well but don’t always translate to real-world performance.
Part of the challenge for any genetic engineering program will be figuring out how to robustly measure traits we want to change. IQ test are highly g-loaded, but they can be gamed. I remember reading a study (I can’t find it now) showing that if you trained people on IQ test you could increase their scores by like 15 points, which shows that IQ scores can become decoupled from g. Ideally we’d like a test that can’t be gamed.