So do you think humans in 1700 had much better genetics for cognitive capabilities than, say, when pyramids were built ?
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Replying to @RCownie @CovfefeAnon and
I think the inhabitants of the British isles had better genetics for cognitive capabilities in 1700 than they did in 1200. Comparing across region, time and migration gets much trickier.
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Replying to @arnolfson @CovfefeAnon and
Not something we can expect to determine accurately. I don't see it, though it's much easier for us to appreciate the 16th/17th century vernacular than Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, or Latin, along with the High Medieval worldview.
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Replying to @RCownie @arnolfson and
Easier to grok this though, mostly from 1220-1258https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salisbury_Cathedral#/media/File:SalisburyCathedral-wyrdlight-EastExt.jpg …
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Replying to @RCownie @CovfefeAnon and
I think your problem is that you think that something like the cognitive ability of a population should be judged by a few buildings and texts. Which is idiotic.
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Replying to @arnolfson @CovfefeAnon and
Not sure what else you can do for a historical population, in the absence of a time machine. And my default assumption is "probably about the same". Obviously you have a different viewpoint.
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Replying to @RCownie @arnolfson and
Jumping back in on this because it's illustrative for the audience - your "default assumption" is "probably about the same" Since it's just a default assumption* - WHAT EVIDENCE WOULD YOU HAVE TO SEE TO DISPROVE THAT ASSUMPTION? * It's actually insane to have that assumption
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Replying to @CovfefeAnon @arnolfson and
And what evidence would you need to believe that the people of classical Athens were as smart as those of England in 1700 ? You're all believers in IQ, while I think cognitive capabilities are multi-dimensional and hard to measure. Motes and beams here.
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Replying to @CovfefeAnon @arnolfson and
If I saw evidence of a population with sophisticated technologies losing that expertise, and adopting simpler but less effective technologies, then I'd look closely at what happened and why.
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What? That's a total non-sequitur. You'd believe that Group A abandoning technology and adopting worse tech disproves an assumption that all groups are mentally identical?
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Replying to @CovfefeAnon @RCownie and
That actually did happen in the case of Tasmania.
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