From: E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@extropy.org)
Date: Fri Aug 24 2001 - 19:30:03 MDT
You wrote:
>Actually, IQ tests vary radically in the scores they give out. That's one
>of the problems with them. Mensa got around this problem by specifying that
>one had to score above 99% of other applicants. They have a table of which
>IQ scores on which tests will qualify. I believe the minimum acceptable
>score ranged 30-40 IQ points depending on which test was taken. Another
>problem with IQ tests is that taking the same test repeatedly gives
>radically different scores from day to day. The tests don't even predict
>future scores within a 10% error of margin. If anyone wants to pass an IQ
>test, just try again or try a different one.
Without sounding redundant here, I think that IQ tests just provide a
numerical marker that intelligent individuals can carry around in their
heads as qualifiers of how astute they are, and how astute others should
view them as being. Yes, IQ is a quantifier of something, and yes, I do
think that IQ tests are fun to take, but it is very important to
distinguish between how someone does on a two hour-long (more or less) test
and how someone does in an eighty year-long life. Not a single person on
this list will say that Richard Feynman was not a brilliant man, and the
bearing his alleged IQ played in his life and his accomplishments is pretty
much nil. Likewise, I would be willing to bet that there are some members
of this list who have an IQ around 100, and others who have an IQ twice
that. Big deal.
If you treat IQ like the intelligence "approximation" it really is, then
that's fine. But don't think it is any more than that, because it isn't,
and shouldn't have any bearing on how one is viewed in life.
________________________________________________________
E. Shaun Russell Operations Officer, Extropy Institute
e_shaun@extropy.org http://www.extropy.org
COO and Director, Kryos Biomedical
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Hear my music at: http://www.mp3.com/eshaunrussell
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