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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   32426 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022

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What is "human neural uniformity"?

HNU is whatever epistemic theory you are pushing in which twin studies have no evidentiary value. My suspicion is that you're playing similar games to folks like Cosma Shalizi - tossing out a bunch of words hinting at the technical unsophistication of HBD proponents, but in reality those words don't mean much of anything.

A great way for you to show yourself to be less vapid would be to post something along the lines:

  1. A twin study measured T to be highly heritable.

  2. HBD proponents predict X as a result of heritable T.

  3. But actually actually ~X in spite of heritable T.

What's wrong with "HBD proponents think heritable T is mraningful evidence for evopsych on T, even though it's not"?

Most folks here (including myself) think "is meaningful evidence" means "results in predictions that are likely to be true". I suspect you mean something entirely different, and are perhaps engaging in wordplay and sophistry to hide the fact that you have no meaningful critique of HBD as a theory that results in testable predictions.

I consider your continued evasion of specifics as evidence in favor of sophistry. But I would think differently if you actually illustrated your claims with examples of specific testable predictions.

It's probably a modification of a moldbug neologism, "Human neurological uniformnity", from a gentle introduction p. 3. It just means - 'human intelligence and psychological traits are evenly distributed across races, no significant inter-race differences'.

But human neural uniformity sounds like a dumb and baseless theory.

Blank slatism

Blank slatism is a strawman though. E.g. Turkheimer had this denouncement to say of blank slatists who argue against heritability:

It is not a given that both sides of every argument are being reasonable. In the final analysis, this book is not reasoning forward from a known set of facts, seeking their explanation; it is confabulating backwards from a fixed conclusion, eliding any segments of the evidence that don’t lead to the preordained destination. The Trouble With Twin Studies is science denial.

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