I was imagining shifting the entire normal distribution two SDs to the right,
Right, but those interventions are harder (shifting the right tail further right is especially hard).
Also, shifting the distribution is just way different numerically from being able to make anyone who wants be +7SD. If you shift +1SD, you go from 0 people at +7SD to ~8 people.
(And note that the shift is, in some ways, more unequal compared to “anyone who wants, for the price of a new car, can reach the effective ceiling”.)
A right shift by 2SDs would make people like Hawkings, Einstein, Tesla, etc. about 100 times more common, and make it so that a few people who are 1-2SDs above these people are likely to appear soon. I think this is sufficient, but I don’t know enough about human intelligence to guarantee it.
I think it depends on how the SD is increased. If you “merely” create a 150-IQ person with a 20-item working memory, or with a 8SD processing speed, this may not be enough to understand the problem and to solve it. Of course, you can substitute with verbal intelligence, which I think a lot of mathematicians do. I can’t rotate 5D objects in my head, but I can write equations on paper which can rotate 5D objects and get the right answer. I think this is how mathematics is progressing past what we can intuitively understand. Of course, if your non-verbal intelligence can keep up, you’re much better off, since you can combine any insights from any area of life and get something new out of it.
Right, but those interventions are harder (shifting the right tail further right is especially hard).
Also, shifting the distribution is just way different numerically from being able to make anyone who wants be +7SD. If you shift +1SD, you go from 0 people at +7SD to ~8 people.
(And note that the shift is, in some ways, more unequal compared to “anyone who wants, for the price of a new car, can reach the effective ceiling”.)
Right, I agree with that.
A right shift by 2SDs would make people like Hawkings, Einstein, Tesla, etc. about 100 times more common, and make it so that a few people who are 1-2SDs above these people are likely to appear soon. I think this is sufficient, but I don’t know enough about human intelligence to guarantee it.
I think it depends on how the SD is increased. If you “merely” create a 150-IQ person with a 20-item working memory, or with a 8SD processing speed, this may not be enough to understand the problem and to solve it. Of course, you can substitute with verbal intelligence, which I think a lot of mathematicians do. I can’t rotate 5D objects in my head, but I can write equations on paper which can rotate 5D objects and get the right answer. I think this is how mathematics is progressing past what we can intuitively understand. Of course, if your non-verbal intelligence can keep up, you’re much better off, since you can combine any insights from any area of life and get something new out of it.