As humans, we reward those traits we collectively find most desirable with additional resources. Parents with additional resources may choose to grant them as seed capital for their children, to have more children themselves, or to promote traits they find desirable in other people's children.
Our species is currently directing its breeding efforts towards ruthless, unethical business managers and corrupt politicians.
If we wanted geniuses, we would be paying people just for being smarter than the median. Instead, tuition is rising faster than inflation, and our smartest folks are often tremendously burdened with debt during their prime reproductive years, to the point that any children they may have are bound by their available resources rather than by their potential.
We are selectively breeding ourselves. It just turns out that the rich assholes want humanity to be more like them. If smart people want to breed more geniuses, we're probably going to need to do it on a different planet, where intelligence will be more of a survival advantage.
Scholarships are also given out based on criteria unrelated to intelligence or aptitude. Do you happen to know what proportion of all scholarship funding is allocated purely on the basis of academic strength?
Don't know, but I've heard that the average scholarship at our local University is not applied for. There are many small ones, with very specific criterion. One of my son's friends was surprised to win a scholarship, because he hadn't applied - the dean had applied for him!
As humans, we reward those traits we collectively find most desirable with additional resources. Parents with additional resources may choose to grant them as seed capital for their children, to have more children themselves, or to promote traits they find desirable in other people's children.
Our species is currently directing its breeding efforts towards ruthless, unethical business managers and corrupt politicians.
If we wanted geniuses, we would be paying people just for being smarter than the median. Instead, tuition is rising faster than inflation, and our smartest folks are often tremendously burdened with debt during their prime reproductive years, to the point that any children they may have are bound by their available resources rather than by their potential.
We are selectively breeding ourselves. It just turns out that the rich assholes want humanity to be more like them. If smart people want to breed more geniuses, we're probably going to need to do it on a different planet, where intelligence will be more of a survival advantage.
Just watch out for Khan.