Hacker News Reader

Comment by fwungy | Hacker News Reader

Ever notice how it's a small set of phenotypes among dogs that are chosen as high level working dogs, e.g. police dogs?

Some dogs are highly intelligent and readily trained and some dogs aren't. You can guess by looking at their phenotype, i.e. breed, although not every dog of a preferred phenotype is capable.

Someone may be gifted at dancing. Someone may be gifted at singing. Someone may be gifted at hunting.

Why do we insist academic pursuits are equally available to everyone if we only throw enough resources at them?

Any selective program, music, athletics, military has a minimum entry level they're willing to accept. They know you can't turn a random person into an elite musician, athlete, or soldier.

Why does academia have to pretend that academic talent is evenly and randomly dispersed?

View on HN

Because our assessments of the outcomes of different phenotypes have been hopelessly polluted by 16th - 19th theories, often based on the Bible, that have caused people to unleash untold and unrelenting violence on people with naturally servile phenotypes for dozens of generations.

That being said, slavery and colonialism are clearly dysgenic. Slavery kills the brave, the strong, the honest, the compassionate, those who can see the bigger picture, those with self-respect, those who love their parents, those who love their children, those who will not be raped, those who will not be enslaved. It selects for the apple-polisher, the scammer, those who are best at concealment, the selfish, the ruthless, the wily, the drone, those who can bear endless misfortunes, those who can lift heavy weights.

"Readily trained" isn't synonymous with "highly intelligent," although readily trained is the goal of breeding. To be "readily trained" is to be obedient; ready to take the master's priorities as your own.

Even with full reparations and the lack of further obligation that would mean for the US, black people will be in the position of trying to silence that part of our brains that has been bred to prioritize the problems and the presence of white people. Luckily it was only 400 years of damage.

White people were enslaved a lot in the Roman Empire and following into the Middle Ages.

What are “white people”?

When you follow the narrative of white slavery, you’re taking a road that leads to some racists spewing whataboutism to somehow establish that slavery in America was acceptable.

There are no white people. There are Italians, Germans, Slavs, Nords, and so on. They are different groups of people with different cultures and languages.

Grouping all light skinned people into one made up ethnic group is completely disregarding their unique and special heritages, and the oppressions that happened between them.

There are cultures that never invented the wheel, written language or permanent buildings. They are highly intelligent in their own ways, but they are as unlikely to fit into elite academic as elite academics are to survive in a jungle on their own.

Dogs aren’t chosen, they were bred over thousands of years for the job.

The problem is that peoples assessments of whom is best suited to what doesn’t work with sentient humans as it does with pack animals or dogs. The conversation tends to degrade towards whatever social biases are held vs any meaningful assessment.

When those great minds of the 19th century were opining on this, they weren’t thinking about the stupid white/black/indigenous (with or without Hispanic) categories used in the United States. They wanted to make sure that Irish and Italian bumpkins stayed away from polite society - because they were poor and presumably unsuitable.

Bullshit dogs aren’t chosen. My wife very carefully chooses each pup she keeps, and they’re often “culled” from her program as young adults when they don’t meet her standards.

Anyone doing working/sport dog stuff 100% chooses the dog.

For instance, a friend of ours (has a pup from us) went through 4-5 litters where she was told “I have the perfect pup for you!” Only to have it not be anywhere even close. She eventually came to us, and we did have the right pup. And now he gets to sniff out dead bodies, ride I’m helos, and find lost people in the nm woods.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com