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Vasubandhu89's avatar

Very interesting article. This kind of research is finally revealing the origins of group differences in cognitive ability today. It seems to have something to do with experience with agriculture and centralized civilization. This created greater selection pressures for cognitive ability and educational attainment. But this probably not the whole story. For example, the area around the Fertile Crescent has the longest record of agriculture and civilization, but these regions do not exhibit high cognitive ability now. There must something more to the story.

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Shane's avatar

Makes you wonder if industrial society, for all its apparent might, has the capacity to successfully craft and then more important- consistently impose, positive selective pressure on its population for centuries. I would say no. The risk of unintended consequences for such plans seems high as well, with the results on society and culture unknown until many generations later. Or maybe there are other approaches that are less obvious...

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