Current Affairs Elon Musk

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Agreed... Since there are loads of different methods for testing, each one claiming to the best.

For some reason, 'IQ' seems to be a sore point with the right.

Yep, Charles Murray wrote a whole book, of which one third deals with IQ and the genetics of intelligence in the context of class differences. It came out during Covid (called, ironically, "Human Diversity") and the major claims were basically: 1) races exist in a genetic sense, 2) classes exist due to intrinsic differences in intelligence, which has a genetic basis, and 3) gender differences are rooted in biology. (He actually had 10 claims in his book but they revolve around these three areas).

I developed a whole class to deal with these claims. But I agree, the right is obsessed with genes and IQ especially. What is emerging from the very latest research in behavior genetics is that the heritability of intelligence, which was once thought to be up around 50-60% (meaning, for a population of individuals that takes an IQ test--which is often used as a proxy for intelligence--50 to 60% of the differences in IQ scores can be attributed to differences in what genes individuals have inherited from mom/dad, where as 40-50% of the differences in IQ scores are due to things like differences in school, upbringing, etc.). Almost all these estimates of heritability are based on twin-studies. But newest research, based on genome-wide association studies (sample sizes in the millions) suggest the heritability of intelligence, and more generally the heritability of "educational attainment" (since IQ scores aren't available for everyone, but how much schooling they completed is) is like 10-20%, meaning, again, 10-20% of the differences in educational attainment (or IQ scores) can be attributed to differences in genes that people inherit, while 80-90% is attributed to the environment. Much more nurture than nature. And much much more than has been argued for decades.

[full disclosure, I'm not one to simply reject IQ tests outright, they have some usefulness and at present there isn't any other better way to measure what we define as intelligence. They are flawed, however, in their deployment, since things like stress, poverty, upbringing, schooling, etc., can distort one's performance on them, and certainly flawed in how much some sections of society place value on them. I'm not defending their use, just saying there isn't a widely-used alternative that I'm aware of].
 
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I'd say anyone who believes strongly in the validity of IQ testing is already suspect
 
And I'd also add to that, for insecure men like Trump and Musk, 'who's got the highest IQ' just seems to just be another 'pissing contest' for them to stroke their already well over-inflated egos. 🤷‍♂️
 
IQ bollocks aside we should be careful thinking of Musk as not very bright.

He & Trump just have the type of intelligence that can only be fully exploited if you have no moral compass.

Look at the misinformation he posts. People play the game that he must be a bit dim not to know the truth before he spaces out something.

His misinformation gets massive exposure. The correction & even any later admission of being wrong barely get seen. Job done.
 
IQ bollocks aside we should be careful thinking of Musk as not very bright.

He & Trump just have the type of intelligence that can only be fully exploited if you have no moral compass.

Look at the misinformation he posts. People play the game that he must be a bit dim not to know the truth before he spaces out something.

His misinformation gets massive exposure. The correction & even any later admission of being wrong barely get seen. Job done.
He knows exactly what he's doing, the utter danger.
 

I want to be careful responding on this because I’m not defending Musk & Bezos etc but mostly they have massive wealth (and power, which is the dangerous part) but they don’t have as much cash as people make them out to have. This is the idiocy of the “wealth tax” discourse in the US; just tax Tesla and SpaceX appropriately and you don’t need to fuss over the rest.
 
All this cos he can’t love his kids enough
And I reckon he was bullied mercifully in school when he was still in South Africa.

He attended a staunch all-boy Afrikaans school in Pretoria, where they were ALL proper rugby jocks.

And here comes along a little English-speaking lad with a name like 'Elon'.

Yeah, for sure he definitely saw the inside of a lot of nasty toilet bowls, face first, while they were being flushed, mate! 😲
 
In his latest genius move, X are suing over the Alex Jones bankruptcy to make it absolutely clear that they in fact own everyone’s account on X:


… so this should confirm that they can be sued for libels posted by the accounts they’ve licenced to people who use them to libel others.
 
In his latest genius move, X are suing over the Alex Jones bankruptcy to make it absolutely clear that they in fact own everyone’s account on X:


… so this should confirm that they can be sued for libels posted by the accounts they’ve licenced to people who use them to libel others.
I guess their argument is that they own the account but not the content. Say if someone was renting an unfurnished flat and they went bankrupt, the courts could take anything that the tenant had bought in the flat but not the flat itself. At least that’s how it reads to me.
 
I guess their argument is that they own the account but not the content. Say if someone was renting an unfurnished flat and they went bankrupt, the courts could take anything that the tenant had bought in the flat but not the flat itself. At least that’s how it reads to me.

Probably, although of course the landlord isnt entirely absolved from any responsibility from what the flat is used for.

Twitter (and the rest of social media) seem to be determined to claim they own, monetize, edit and curate content but bear no responsibility for it; hopefully this absurd situation will be resolved legally soon and we can have a situation where there is no need for state censorship (against disinformation) because the existing court system can deal with it by allowing victims to sue the social media firms boosting it as well as the creators.
 
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