Re: Roska's Utopia

On 15/04/11 12:13, Mark Williams wrote:
"Marjorie"<dontusethisaddress@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:zsqdnXUJu-CqmzXQnZ2dnUVZ7sKdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 14/04/2011 22:30, Rosalind Mitchell wrote:
On 14/04/11 19:17, Linda Fox wrote:
On 14/04/2011 17:50, Rosalind Mitchell wrote:
On 14/04/11 17:33, BrritSki wrote:
On 14/04/2011 17:16, Steve Brooks wrote:

"Rosalind Mitchell" wrote
On 14/04/11 14:00, Ralph B wrote:

Meanwhile, I think it's generally accepted that high IQ test
results only indicate skill at doing IQ tests, rather than any
higher effectiveness in other aspects of life, including
management.

Generally accepted by whom? Those people who think they are
terribly unfair because thick people don't score very highly?

Well it's generally accepted by me. For two reasons -

I think it's unwise to try and characterise something as
multi-faceted and ill-defined as human intelligence with a single
number.

If IQ tests measured any fundamental quality of the person tested
it wouldn't be possible to get better at them with practice. (No
matter how hard I try and how often we measure my height I'll
always be 5' 5''. Until I shrink with age - oh joy!)

To be fair to IQ tests - obviously they must be measuring something
that correlates with some aspects of performance in the world
outside the testing centre. I just don't think it's clear what that
is or how important it is in life.

Can you point to an example that contradicts a correlation
between intelligence and IQ score? A demonstration that
not-very-bright people do well in tests, for example?

Since I can't define or measure intelligence obviously I can't
provide any such example. Surely we've all known people who were
intelligent in some ways and at least reasonably stupid in others?
I'd count myself as one. I do (or maybe once did) very well in IQ
tests.

I do very well at IQ tests.

I vote Tory.

QED

I also considered who would do the menial work in this ideal society,
and decided that all those found to have voted Tory, who are by
definition selfish and mendacious and hence disruptive to a
co-operative
system, and all others who attended Oxford or Cambridge Universities
where money counts much more than brains, will be disenfranchised and
set to work cleaning the sewers and doing low-grade work for those with
real intellectual power.

Are we let off if we went to Oxford and Cambridge but didn't have any
money?


Didbn't we go to the most expensive school of the lot? Local state
schjool beneath us? Whaty would have been wrong with going to, say,
Liverpoool? Good enough for riff-raff like me but beneath you? Piss off.


What about my daughter (for example)? State schools, degree at Cambridge,
now working in housing research providing information for government,
charities and other organisations about housing needs. She has worked in
night shelters and homelessness centres too, in both voluntary and paid
work. She's very good at intelligence tests, FWIW, and female, which seems
to trump maleness in your alternative hierarchy. And she would never vote
Tory.

Would society be better if she were to clean streets instead?

I don't know, but the streets might be cleaner.

I applied to Cambridge and Bristol, but Bristol turned me down because I had
applied to Cambridge, so I didn't have much choice.

There used to be five choices on the UCCA form. Has that changed? Did Bristol actually say that?

Roska

--
COLEOPTERA DIMISSENDA EST
Currently reading: Enough, by John Naish

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Roskas Utopia
    ... is or how important it is in life. ... Are we let off if we went to Oxford and Cambridge but didn't have any ... I applied to Cambridge and Bristol, ...
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  • Re: Roskas Utopia
    ... is or how important it is in life. ... Are we let off if we went to Oxford and Cambridge but didn't have any ... I applied to Cambridge and Bristol, ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: Roskas Utopia
    ... is or how important it is in life. ... I vote Tory. ... Are we let off if we went to Oxford and Cambridge but didn't have any ... Would society be better if she were to clean streets instead? ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: Roskas Utopia
    ... is or how important it is in life. ... Are we let off if we went to Oxford and Cambridge but didn't have any ... I applied to Cambridge and Bristol, ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: Roskas Utopia
    ... Are we let off if we went to Oxford and Cambridge but didn't have any ... I applied to Cambridge and Bristol, but Bristol turned me down because I had ... I wasn't particularly good at IQ tests, and have never voted Tory, neither have I made a vast pile of money, nor has my Oxford background ever got me a job. ...
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