Ritalin comments on Open Thread for February 18-24 2014 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: eggman 19 February 2014 12:57PM

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Comment author: Ritalin 23 February 2014 01:26:15AM *  0 points [-]

Hardly. I myself change colour all the time, depending on how much sun I get. But it would appear that the races "scientific racism" as I understand it classifies as smarter, are all of paler disposition overall; "whites" in the traditional sense, european jews, and east asians. Calling them all White-X is a way of drawing attention to this strange fact. Is there something about sunlight deprivation that sharpens the mind?

Comment author: Lumifer 23 February 2014 03:45:28AM 4 points [-]

East Asians (and specifically Han Chinese) were never called White.

Is there something about sunlight deprivation that sharpens the mind?

No, but I suspect that the necessity to survive the winter led to increased evolutionary pressures.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 23 February 2014 04:14:15AM 4 points [-]

Perhaps, on the other hand the places where civilizations first developed, i.e., Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, the Indus Valley, Central America, don't have harsh winters; I'm not sure about the Yellow River, but my brief Googling suggested their winters aren't that harsh either.

Comment author: Lumifer 23 February 2014 04:45:39AM 10 points [-]

The best geography/climate to develop a civilization is not necessarily the best geography/climate to produce high intelligence. Early civilizations arose in places where agriculture was productive enough to generate significant surplus.

Comment author: Ritalin 23 February 2014 10:40:25AM 1 point [-]

I would hardly consider places like the valley of the Congo or Australia or the Sahara to be evolutionarily soft.

Comment author: Lumifer 23 February 2014 04:37:04PM 7 points [-]

I would hardly consider places like the valley of the Congo or Australia or the Sahara to be evolutionarily soft.

Evolution can push development into different directions. Winters promote long-term thinking and planning. The Congo basin probably promotes resistance to parasites and infections....

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 23 February 2014 03:52:51AM 3 points [-]

I'm not sure about that. I don't have statistics, anecdotally dark skinned Indians appear to be comparable to East Asians.

Comment author: Ritalin 23 February 2014 10:56:53AM -1 points [-]

Indians have very varied skin tones, ranging from the very very dark all the way to the very very pale.