Turing disproves Seligman (was: Seligman on intelligence)

[Adam Pressler]

The genetic basis of intelligence always annoys me
because it implies that our minds are hardwired
machines.  This is inconsistent with Alan Touring's
great objection to that idea.

However, being willing to concede that they MAY have a
point, the genetic-intellingencers need to address the
following meta level problems with their theories.



Alan Turing's Objection:
(1)	If minds are merely machines, then there is
nothing that a mind can do that a machine cannot. 
(2)	Machines cannot prove the truth of Godel formulae.
(3)	Minds can prove the truth of Godel formulae.
(4)	Therefore, minds cannot be (merely) machines

Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorem (simplified): In
any consistent system which is strong enough to
produce simple arithmetic there are formulae which
cannot be proved in the system.


The adampopulist Hypothesis:
(1)	If genetics accounts for intelligence, then minds
are machines
(2)	If the Turing Objection is true, Minds are not
machines
(3)	Therefore genetics cannot account for
intelligence.

Analysis: 

Statement 1 is the crucial point, because there is the
possibility that even if genetics determines
intelligence, it may not necessarily follow that minds
are machines.  However, I think it is the
responsibility of those proposing a genetic theory of
intelligence to make that case.

Statement 2 is also a matter of dispute, and I have
read a few good articles questioning the validity of
the Turing Objection (one is online at the following
url: http://www.interchg.ubc.ca/kgcolema/godel.html ).
 However, rethinking my hypothesis assuming the Turing
hypothesis is false leads me to the following
argument.

The adampopulist corollary:
(1)	If the Turing objection is not true, then minds
are machines 
(2)	If minds are machines, then the Godel Formulae
applies and they are incapable of operating outside
the system
(3)	If genetics determine intelligence, then
intelligence is outside the system
(4)	Therefore, minds are incapable of proving whether
genetics determine intelligence.

Analysis

Statement 3 is the weak one here because it assumes
the machine (the mind) is created by an external force
(genetics).  It may be possible to argue that genetics
is not a force external to the system.  But again, I
think it is the responsibility of those proposing a
genetic theory of intelligence to make that case.







--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [A Daniel Seligman sampler...]

<SNIP> 

> While showing no interest in pursuing this line of
> inquiry, the 
> authors of Report Card have included some evidence
> suggesting that 
> mathematical achievement is in fact powerfully
> related to 
> intelligence. The report notes at various points
> that Asian-Americans 
> do better at math than whites, that whites do better
> than Hispanics, 
> that Hispanics do better than blacks. The report
> naturally does not 
> say so, but this is precisely the sequence you would
> expect from the 
> respective groups' IQ averages.

<SNIP>

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