FormallyknownasRoko comments on Rationality is Not an Attractive Tribe - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Alexandros 23 November 2010 02:08PM

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Comment author: FormallyknownasRoko 24 November 2010 06:23:10PM 0 points [-]

The idea was just that they are more than averagely interested in tech, and israel is also higher than average IQ because of the ashkenazi jews.

Comment author: Desrtopa 24 November 2010 06:38:37PM *  1 point [-]

These qualities don't seem to have allowed any of them to run their countries exceptionally well. If you want to construct a high rationality country, I don't think that any of these three would be particularly good starting points.

Japan at least manages to rank highly on many societal health indices, but their educational system tends to emphasize rote memorization and prestigious affiliation over original thinking and personal achievement.

Between countries, differences in mean intelligence are almost certainly going to be trivial in comparison with differences in social values. You'd want to look, not at which countries tend to have smarter people, but which promote more rationalist-friendly values.

Comment author: FormallyknownasRoko 24 November 2010 06:53:15PM 0 points [-]

Any ideas for that?

Comment author: Desrtopa 24 November 2010 06:58:16PM 2 points [-]

My off the cuff answer is that you might want to try looking at various Scandinavian countries, but since I don't think the basic idea is particularly plausible, it's not something I've invested a great deal of consideration in.

Comment author: juliawise 24 August 2011 04:25:21PM 0 points [-]

Scandinavia has a problematic culture of humility: Jante Law