A response to https://valuevar.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/math-people-moving-around/#more-807:
Hello
After some months of pondering (not really .. just been busy : ) I have a reply. First I will review my population genetics view. I’m not a racialist of any type just a follower of Truth.
1 IQ statistics:
IQ data is a valid indicator of intelligence:
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/11/iq-compression-and-simple-models.html.
It is useful and has predictability:
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/07/annals-of-psychometry-iqs-of-eminent.html
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2009/01/horsepower-matters-psychometrics-works.html
There are genetic differences (clustering ) between populations thus we can broadly define races as a collection of not so distant populations. This has already been done surreptitiously by Cavalli-Sforza:
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/11/human-genetic-variation-fst-and.html
http://www.amazon.com/History-Geography-Human-Genes/dp/0691029059/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1426442924&sr=8-3&keywords=cavalli-sforza
Different populations have been under different selection pressures via historical/geographical accidents and retroactively via the mating preference, a consequence of the modified genetic structure of the population caused by the first point above. This is culture-gene coevolution. Consequently the distribution of phenotypes (probability densitiy) can be different for each population. In fact this would be the natural case without having to do very heavy fine-tuning (pun intended). This is obviously consistent with the genetic clustering mentioned above.
2 There are at least two main geographical /mating preferences that can imply a difference in distributions of IQ.
The “fraudulent” Lynn (and not only him) has shown empirically that there is a correlation between colder climates and IQ (and conscientiousness). Since there is an obvious need to master technological complexity in order to survive in colder climates we can effectively interpret that IQ was selected in colder climates. A personal speculation: assuming what I have said above is true, a gene or set of genes that produced a sexual preference (in females) towards higher iq (and conscientious) mates increases fitness. This fact could probably have happened though I don’t know any paper regarding this fact.
Second point:
Gene flow (of genes that increase fitness in that *particular* environment) in large populations is faster than in smaller ones. Evolution is faster in historical populations
http://www.amazon.com/000-Year-Explosion-Civilization-Accelerated/dp/0465020429/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426445194&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=cochrane+harpending
When a population is at the brink of it’s Malthusian limit selection pressure increases. Again, since the mastery of technological *and* social savviness is correlated with IQ, having a higher IQ increases.
3 Examples.
A particular example is China:
http://www.unz.com/runz/china-debating-the-clark-unz-model/
this explains the measured 105 iq of the country.
In the case of very underdeveloped nations an iq test does undermeasures the genetic IQ of the pop. since we have a lot of enviromental hazards such as malnutrition etc.
In this point I agree with Joeffrey. What I don’t agree is the use of Chile’s increment of IQ as a case against IQ measuring. In fact, this is what the theory predicts. IQ is a phenotypical construct so it depends on genetic and environmental contributions with the last one being higher order dependent on negative “accidents” f,e, suffering malnutrition in childhood, having some kind of cerebral tumor than in positive ones, f.e. early intervetion thus a reduction on the probability of the first set of accidents clearly increases IQ. This is a possible explanation for the Flynn effect (that has started happening in medium sized economies as Chile and now also in Peru, maybe someone could start a long term experiment)
Pisa scores make sense since it is not a direct measure of IQ just a correlation. More clearly it has a medium correlation with crystallized intelligence, low for fluid intelligence.
Personally, having lived in many countries, just seeing how the common people behaves gives you a sense about the IQ of the country. There are notable difference between common people in a rich Europe province swith respect to (that are in no way malnourished or similar) people in Lima so the difference in means is clear. Possibly there is also an important difference in the standard deviations. A consequence is that when we try to find people that can possibly work in high powered mathematical subjects we will find a lot less of capable people than in an European country. I predict that even with a similar infrastructure to European countries we will still have a gap though not as wide as in current times.
Correspondingly I reiterate my point above in that the talent selection machinery is working very good in Peru. This is similar to the phenomena that happens with eastern European countries which fixing the iq and size of the population have better results in average with respect to western european contries thoough in Peru it has happened spontaneously to the testing culture. I will post practical consequences later.
Apparently true 