The Flynn Effect And Food

I came across a comment here that seems to explain the Flynn effect.

“if the amount of innovation were simply satisfying a Darwinian need,[…] it would hold actual-total innovation at the same, pre-trade level.”

However, if innovation isn’t being actively selected against it will decline slowly, so if the trade/communication increased faster than genetic drift the net rate of innovation would still rise.

But there was an active selection against intelligence: caloric availability. Brainy babies require more food, suffer quicker with starvation. Thus that food surplus you spoke of actually eliminated the selective pressure against intelligence for the first time in history. Intelligence/innovation/adaptability should have accelerated.

Which begs the question of how the Ashkenazi Jews gained 15 points of IQ in about 1,000 years of evolution.


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5 responses to “The Flynn Effect And Food”

  1. great unknown Avatar
    great unknown

    a) Tremendous selection pressure from the murderous anti-semitism in Europe

    b) Self-selection for intelligence by a community that valued scholarship. The wealthy merchant’s daughter married the Rabbi’s son.

  2. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Bubbeh, I can get it for you wholesale…

    There’s a huge advantage in banking and trade in being more intelligent than one’s customers for selection pressure. And by hotrodding the brain, which can lead to serious genetic problems sometimes.

  3. Classical Hindu Avatar
    Classical Hindu

    ” Brainy babies require more food, suffer quicker with starvation. ”

    Brainy babies? How is that measured? Actually its the opposite. Adequate nutrition is required for a baby’s brain to develop properly. Malnourished babies’ brain will under develop.

    “Which begs the question of how the Ashkenazi Jews gained 15 points of IQ in about 1,000 years of evolution.”

    They married and mated with other Jews or at least other smart people which increased the chances of their offspring inheriting intelligence.

    “And by hotrodding the brain, which can lead to serious genetic problems sometimes.”

    Hotrodding the brain? What does that mean?

  4. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Lots of articles on the subject by Greg Cochran at westhunter dot com. The genes that code for higher IQ in Ashkenazim are new, and the recessives have nasty side effects. Like painful paralysis.