"Intelligence is a type of polygenic inheritance."
So, I've been reading about intelligence, and the above statement is what I'm trying to hypothesize (well, I did the hypothesis with a friend of mine when we were in KMB, Hafiz was his name). Indeed, there were, or perhaps, there are scientists suggesting Intelligence is inherited and only minority of it is due to environment. This is a statement by Steve Brady which could be read from an article here.
"On the basis of these results, he concluded that 80% of observed differences in human intelligence were due to inherited genetic factors, and only 20% to the environment, and his published figures appeared to support this firmly".
But, I haven't found any stating that Intelligence is a polygenic inheritance (just read here for brief info of it but you might want to try reading from biology textbook for clarifications). However, if you guys could find any, just give me a shout, cause I didn't really took much time searching for it. And so, I had a thought again, of what me and Hafiz simply thought about about 2 years ago, cause we learnt about polygenic inheritance in biology class that time.
At first, I too think that intelligence is inherited, but then, try considering this scenario. You might see or observe parents who are intelligent (depends on how intelligent you think they are, cause its subjective right?), would produce children who are indeed, as intelligent as them, more intelligent or less intelligent than them. But then, sometimes, they might produce a child who is usually called 'the black sheep of the family' cause, you know, this child might be very dumb. This is only an example of the scenario of what I was thinking that time, don't take it seriously. So, if it really is normal inheritance, all the children should be the same right? Thats why I think it might've been polygenic inheritance instead.
I'll give an example of what I'm thinking, say, the upper case would be gene for more intelligent and lower case vice versa.
At first, I too think that intelligence is inherited, but then, try considering this scenario. You might see or observe parents who are intelligent (depends on how intelligent you think they are, cause its subjective right?), would produce children who are indeed, as intelligent as them, more intelligent or less intelligent than them. But then, sometimes, they might produce a child who is usually called 'the black sheep of the family' cause, you know, this child might be very dumb. This is only an example of the scenario of what I was thinking that time, don't take it seriously. So, if it really is normal inheritance, all the children should be the same right? Thats why I think it might've been polygenic inheritance instead.
I'll give an example of what I'm thinking, say, the upper case would be gene for more intelligent and lower case vice versa.
Father: ABcDEFghIJKLMNopqRSTuVWxYZ
Mother: aBCdeFGHIJklMnOPQrSTUvWXYZ
Mother: aBCdeFGHIJklMnOPQrSTUvWXYZ
So, the father has 18 intelligent gene and 8 non-intelligent gene and the same goes for the mother. If they have 3 children, the inheritance could be like this
Child 1: ABcDEFgHIJKLMNoPQRSTUVWXYZ
Child 2: ABCdEFgHIJklMnOPqRSTuVWXYZ
Child 3: aBcdeFghIJKlMnopqrSTuvWxYZ
Child 2: ABCdEFgHIJklMnOPqRSTuVWXYZ
Child 3: aBcdeFghIJKlMnopqrSTuvWxYZ
As you can see, I've computed that the first child is very intelligent, having a number of 23 genes for intelligence, the second being less intelligent with 19 genes for intelligence, and poor third child, who is the most not intelligent of the three having only 11 gene for intelligence. This could happen in reality right? But who knows? As far as I've looked, read, searched, heard, studied, learnt, no one has yet to make a research on intelligence being polygenically inherited. Anyway, I still agree that environment really influences one's intelligence, so, my hypothesis should be corrected.
"Intelligence is mostly due to polygenic inheritance."
I might want to make a research into this, and try to get a nobel prize myself (haha, dreaming). Perhaps, someone before me could prove that my hypothesis is wrong, or, any of you reading this could show me it really is wrong. No harm thinking right? At least when I think, I trigger more brain cells to be activated, hence I get more intelligent, hehe.
p/s: I know may of you wouldn't agree with it, but seriously I ask you, did everyone immediately accepted Galileo Galilei's idea on Gravity?
I might want to make a research into this, and try to get a nobel prize myself (haha, dreaming). Perhaps, someone before me could prove that my hypothesis is wrong, or, any of you reading this could show me it really is wrong. No harm thinking right? At least when I think, I trigger more brain cells to be activated, hence I get more intelligent, hehe.
p/s: I know may of you wouldn't agree with it, but seriously I ask you, did everyone immediately accepted Galileo Galilei's idea on Gravity?
8 comments:
hahahhaa...tiba2 je..belajar pasal apa kat skolah today? ehe..
i tink can be inherited jugak..but not totally 100%
Interesting. From a total non-expert's point of view, I kinda agree with your example. How many times have u heard the story of parents who're professionals (I'm thinking of doctor, engineers, lawyers here) n yet their kids struggle to pass school exams? How many times pulak u heard about straight A scorers whose father is a mere farmer or penoreh getah or penarik beca? Both cases are commonplace, so the argument that intelligence is inherited doesn't seem to be quite accurate, at least not to me.
If the argument is that parents are the ones who set the learning environment for their kids, which is a key component for the learning experience then the notion that intelligence can be passed down to kids is more plausible. We can see ourselves amongst the politicians, how many of them aspire to be ones because their fathers are politicians. They grew up watching how these fathers work, which sets a perfect environment to nurture their own interest in the field. Similarly those farmer or penoreh getah or penarik beca might not be so smart themselves, but as long as they keep their minds open and let their kids roam free in their pursuit of learning intelligence can easily be born out there.
Which brings me to disagree that minority of intelligence is due to environment. It actually plays a huge role in shaping intelligence.
agree with dongga
i totally agree with amirul hafidz, whoever you are
Anis: Yes I am suggesting its inherited, but specifically polygenic inheritance, hehe.
Amirul Hafidz: Great opinion there, I'd say, its 50-50, inheritance and environment. Sometimes, even without good environment, and both parents aren't really intelligent, the child may also emerge as one great person. Reason 1 - The child managed to inherit all good genes from the parents, Reason 2 - The child has the will to succeed in life.
Maybe it's the butterfly effect you know, a butterfly in Bahamas flapping its wing is just enough to change the whole weather pattern in Miami causing a hurricane. I don't know this thing so this is just me rambling and being romantic about the whole thing. Maybe that 20 percent of environment is enough to offset the 80 percent intelligence goodness in a human being. Maybe it works the other way around too. Maybe I'm totally wrong and missing the whole point.
Anyway, on the whole Gallileo thing. I sorta think that in todays world where since is held high and separated as a different discipline from the Church, yeah.. it could be easier for people to accept is. This is of course, the Information Age. This is something I study. The difference of these ages are more than just the number of years. There are a lot of things that change humans from one age to the other and thinking went along with that. A researched showed that us modern day humans are better at multitasking than even the people during the renaissance. Us eating a hamburger while texting on the phone while driving in the car would overload the mind of these people.
Maybe that is why them Renaissance people are so good at what they're at. They focus on that one work. Sculpting, painting, building, thinking.
Hadi, butterfly effect really makes sense. Hmm, although science is separated from religions, other people might have other perceptions to this matter, so, they may not accept or agree with this, so, perceptions and way of thinking plays a role in accepting one's idea right?
Also, you might want to read about the theory and research about the Ashkenazi Jews intelligence.
The Ashkenazims are of course the branch of Jewry from where every great Jews from Sigmund Freud to Albert Einstein are a member off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_intelligence
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