Sure, I still don’t think that if you elevated the intelligence of a group of chimps to the top 5% of humanity without adding some better form of communication and idea accumulation it wouldn’t matter.
If Newton were born in ancient Egypt, he might have made some serious progress, but he almost certainly wouldn’t have discovered calculus and classical mechanics. Being able to stand on the shoulders of giants is really important.
I think what controls the rate of change is the intelligence of the top 5%, not the average intelligence.
Sure, I still don’t think that if you elevated the intelligence of a group of chimps to the top 5% of humanity without adding some better form of communication and idea accumulation it wouldn’t matter.
If Newton were born in ancient Egypt, he might have made some serious progress, but he almost certainly wouldn’t have discovered calculus and classical mechanics. Being able to stand on the shoulders of giants is really important.