semianonymous comments on Muehlhauser-Wang Dialogue - Less Wrong

24 Post author: lukeprog 22 April 2012 10:40PM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 24 April 2012 04:48:13AM *  6 points [-]

Accomplishments of all kinds, the position, the likelihood that Wang has actually managed to move from effectively lower class (third world) to upper class (but I didn't look up where he's from, yet), etc.

Wang is accomplished to the point where one can immediately see it simply from glancing at his CV. However, accomplishments are only a rough measure of intelligence. By some metrics, Conscientiousness is a better predictor of success than raw intelligence, and by many metrics it is at least as good a predictor. Relying on academic success as a metric of intelligence isn't that reliable unless one is doing something like comparing the very top in a field. This also makes little sense given that Luke isn't a member of academia.

The claim about the third world is puzzling- Wang is Chinese (a fact that I would think would be obvious from his name, and took me two seconds to verify by looking at his CV) and China has never been considered third world, but rather was (when the term made more sense) second world. Moreover, this isn't just an argument over the meaning of words- China's GDP per a capita, average education level, average literacy level[1], or almost any other metric you choose is far higher than that of most countries classically considered to be in the third world.

Wang is also older than Luke. Wang finished his undergraduate degree in 1983, so he's approximately in his early fifties now. Pei Wang has therefore had far more time to accomplish things. So simply lining up their accomplishment levels doesn't work. (Although Wang clearly does have some accomplishments at a fairly young age, such as his thesis being selected for an Outstanding Dissertation Award by his university.)

What proxies do you think would indicate Luke is more intelligent? I can't seem to think of any.

I'm not sure why this question is being asked. I'm not aware of any either but it really doesn't have much to do with the matter at hand. You've claimed not just that Wang is likely to be more intelligent but that "Every single proxy for intelligence indicates a fairly dramatic gap in intelligence"- that requires a lot more than simply not having any obvious pointers for Luke to be smarter. Overall, I'm deeply unconvinced that either one is more intelligent. This isn't an issue of Luke being more intelligent. This is an issue of very little data in general.

[1] Some of the entries in that list are measured with different metrics, so this isn't a perfect comparison.