Interesting article! Thanks for writing. But I am suspicious of claims about increasing IQ because, if it was possible, surely someone would have done a proof-of-concept with animals.
It’s difficult to do such experiments with humans because (1) ethical issues; (2) humans take 9 months to be born (long gestation period); and (3) a few years for them to mature enough to get any objective results. I imagine the effort to increase IQ would be iterative. That needs a quick feedback loop which is not possible with humans.
There must be some animal with (1) no ethical issues like mice or chicken; (2) a somewhat similar brain structure to humans; (3) short gestation period; and (4) matures faster due to short lifespan. All of this contributes to a faster feedback loop. Somewhat similar to what Neuralink is doing.
Is the fact that no one has done a proof-of-concept with any animal evidence that increasing IQ through gene editing is not possible?
As for the importance of a proof-of-concept with animals, you mentioned funding to iterate to improve humans. If someone shows the world a rat understanding prime numbers, there would be practically infinite funding to optimize human intelligence.
Interesting article! Thanks for writing. But I am suspicious of claims about increasing IQ because, if it was possible, surely someone would have done a proof-of-concept with animals.
It’s difficult to do such experiments with humans because (1) ethical issues; (2) humans take 9 months to be born (long gestation period); and (3) a few years for them to mature enough to get any objective results. I imagine the effort to increase IQ would be iterative. That needs a quick feedback loop which is not possible with humans.
There must be some animal with (1) no ethical issues like mice or chicken; (2) a somewhat similar brain structure to humans; (3) short gestation period; and (4) matures faster due to short lifespan. All of this contributes to a faster feedback loop. Somewhat similar to what Neuralink is doing.
Is the fact that no one has done a proof-of-concept with any animal evidence that increasing IQ through gene editing is not possible?
As for the importance of a proof-of-concept with animals, you mentioned funding to iterate to improve humans. If someone shows the world a rat understanding prime numbers, there would be practically infinite funding to optimize human intelligence.