Comment by cbennett | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cbennett | Hacker News Reader

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I like this idea quite a bit, although I'm not exactly sure it would be a startup in the end because the willingness (ability?) to pay amongst the target market here must be quite low, I imagine. Just free styling here, but the way to go about it would be to bundle a sort of 'package' of tools into a couple of various tiers, from easy (low input of time/funds) to challenging (more pricey/difficult). One wrinkle is that I think there is a spectrum from pretty clearly verified IQ boosters.. such as psychologically verified games like n-back, and proper nutritions (EPA+DHA, etc etc), to ones that are much more speculative or carry some baggage that 'underclass' folks (that sounds sort of bad ha) might be extremely reluctant to participate in.. eg meditative practice, nootropics, etc. (Brain) food for thought.. :P

With regards to the Victorian study, I read through that last week and it is not immediately clear to me from the literature that reaction time is really a reliable indicator of g. Conversely, the Flynn affect suggests that IQ has really been going up. And if you've read any of Flynn's stuff you'll find that he has quite a nice explanation here, which is that the more brilliant heuristics/words/thinking tools pioneered amongst scientists, inventors, so on are slowly filtering down into the masses generation by generation. Perhaps what this suggests is that education in a new way- introducing folks to a library of new 'thinking tools' rather than just memorization etc- might have to go hand in hand with the sort of biophysical/training ideas above. I highly recommend this video by Dennett to hear a bit more about this concept- minutes 5-14 specifically: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4...

How about show your fellow human beings a modicum of respect. They aren't your lab rats. Maybe if your upper-class, power-heavy minority would reevaluate all the patronizing aspects of their philanthropic efforts, poor folks wouldn't have learned helplessness from the futility of their situation, and would actually have the energy to lift themselves up.

Drug dealing, crime, and prostitution are sometimes seemingly the only way to actually move up in the world anymore.

Oh, give me a break.

I'm not interested in respecting and not-patronizing people. I'm interested in a better world and fixing the problems.

A big part of why people are poor (and/or delinquent) is, let's face it, because of how their brains work. Sure, there are lots of socio-economic factors keeping people down, but it's never an either-or issue. And I'm not saying that we should stop trying traditional poverty-bootstrapping tactics, but rather that cognitive enhancement is worth looking into also.

For instance, there was a study done in a prison that showed that fish oil can reduce violent tendencies[1]. It's also known to help with child ADHD[2].

(Actually, the interventions I have in mind would focus more around positive psychology, metacognition/mindfulness training, and applied rationality aka scientific self-help. Just using the fish oil as an example since it's well studied and is a very simple measure to take.)

Also, poor people should be happy that the "upper class" take an interest in raising them up. What do you prefer, patronizing philanthropists or corrupt elites who don't give a rat's ass as to their wellbeing at all?

[1] Influence of supplementary vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids on the antisocial behaviour of young adult prisoners - http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/181/1/22.full

[2] Multiple studies - http://examine.com/show_rubric_effect.php?id=2&effect=AD...

I bet there is a lot of low-hanging fruit. What would happen if we just became consistent with the fish oil and n-back stuff?

Thanks for the tip, I'll watch it.

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