alliumnsk comments on Q&A with Harpending and Cochran - Less Wrong

26 Post author: MBlume 10 May 2010 11:01PM

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Comment author: NaN 11 May 2010 11:55:11AM 8 points [-]

We think that we know a little bit about how to raise intelligence. Just turn down the suppression of early CNS growth. If you do that in one way the eyeball grows too big and you are nearsighted, which is highly correlated with intelligence.

There is now substantial evidence that there is a causal link between prolonged focusing on close objects - of which probably the most common case is reading books (it appears that monitors are not close enough to have a substantial effect) - and nearsightedness/myopia, though this is still somewhat controversial. This is the typical explanation for the correlation between myopia and IQ and academic achievement.

A genetic explanation is possible, and would be fascinating, but I wouldn't want to accept that without further evidence. If the genetic explanation is true and environment makes no contribution, then I think one should find that IQ is more highly correlated with myopia than academic achievement -- I don't know if this has been found or not.

Comment author: alliumnsk 23 March 2015 08:06:49AM 0 points [-]

If the genetic explanation is true and environment makes no contribution, then I think one should find that IQ is more highly correlated with myopia than academic achievement

It's like saying "if evolution is true, crocoducks should exist". You are (deliberately?) misrepresenting opponent's views. He meant that of all genetic variation affecting IQ, only small, but non-negligible, subset affects both myopia and IQ. However I still don't quite get how larger brain can cause myopia rather than hyperopia.

Comment author: Jiro 23 March 2015 07:17:20PM 0 points [-]

Maybe the larger brain leads to more intelligence, and people with more intelligence read more, and reading more leads to myopia. (Whether reading actually leads to myopia can be questioned, but that doesn't affect the point.)