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Since I’ve moved to Unz Review I’ve attracted a set of readers who are used to the level of discourse on topics evolutionary which is the norm on “HBD blogs.” Let me be clear that I don’t tolerate uninformed speculation because I don’t care to listen to it as I don’t gain any value from it. This is in response to a long and bizarre hectoring rant about my lack of credentials, the nature of heredity, etc. It reminded me of the moron who accused me of not understanding Lewontin’s Fallacy at Inducivist a few years ago (a further idiot also decided to “explain” epistasis to me). A buzz word or two does not sagacity make. Naturally this person was banned. But in any case this is as good a place as any to suggest that someone who wants to engage with me in a manner where I will take them seriously should be at least somewhat familiar with population genetics, and hopefully genomics. This naturally curtails communication with most of the human race, and that’s the point. I will at some point die in the future unless the Singularity arrives, so I do not wish to waste my time talking to most of the human race about things they know nothing of.
With the pleasantries out of the way I am here to offer a way to meet the threshold of knowledge which will make you fluent in leaving comments here.
The water is warm and not too deep, wade in
- You can read Principles of Population Genetics.
- Read the UConn population genetics notes.
- Read Graham Coop’s population genetics notes.
- Read Joe Felsenstein’s population genetics text.
All of these are pretty easy, and three of them are free. You don’t need to derive all the formalisms. God knows I haven’t. But you need a basic algebraic framework to think about the process quantitatively. Additionally, it is probably useful to get at least some genomics background since that’s the empirical data that is really relevant for much of the commentary on this weblog.
I hope I’m clear that any rude, annoying, and hectoring comments are going to result in immediate banning.
You’re giving your readers a lot of credit there! To take in that kind of textbook stuff would be a real challenge without someone showing you. Even then, I think most people would be scared to use it in a comment in case they made a fool of themselves.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769137
there are many readers who have taken a year or two to take this sort of stuff in. really all you need is the algebra. and i’m pretty indulgent when it comes to those sorts of errors. you have to be wrong before you’re right, though the right type of wrong…
(note that on the order of half of the core readers of this weblog over the past 10 years have phds or are getting phds, so it’s not out of the ability of most)
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769150
Would you recommend readers to also read sources on psychometrics and biogenomic race? Every once in a while a related post comes up in GNXP, probably useful for readers to have some knowledge of Rushton, Jensen et al. and others.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769277
*the g factor* by jensen. but really, if you read *introduction to quantitative genetics* by falconer & mckay you don’t need that.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769312
I don’t always understand all of what you say but I still find your articles informative and enjoyable. The gist of what you are saying always comes across. Keep up the good work!
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769451
It isn’t just you, Razib, who’s frustrated with the quality of the audience here. I have to weigh in the nature of the unzcrowds every time I’m tempted to comment, and 90% of the time I just decide to stay silent. The fear of coming across as one of the wingnuts, and the suspicion that some disaffected readers here may be sending a stream of denunciations to the powers-that-be – and on top of it, the host who has a gift
for enraging the nuts even more with your invective and bans … it just doesn’t come across as a safe neighborhood for a polite discourse.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769456
powers that be?
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769480
La Migra, the feds, local law enforcement, grant-giving agencies, tax auditors, current and future employers, your mother in law, your cousin’s imam? I would imagine that someone squeals about you to the assorted authorities at least daily, and the files are getting longer and longer which is at least annoying.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-769487
Well, I followed you here from Discover. I don’t follow the details of most of what you write about, but I can follow the broad outlines. Your refusal to suffer fools makes me trust the information I’m reading about here, and, frankly, the fact that someone like you is willing to be published on Unz Review gives credence to the whole HBD thing and the intersection of conservative politics and science even if some of the details and personalities are sketchy in other places.
I would like to take a couple years to get up to speed on population genomics, but I am just too old and too busy. Once you leave the academic tract for something like healthcare work, you lose an edge and start thinking things like, “I could spend this $20 on a textbook or a bottle of bourbon… which one really makes more sense for me” and then you’re finished.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-770031
I would like to take a couple years to get up to speed on population genomics, but I am just too old and too busy. Once you leave the academic tract for something like healthcare work, you lose an edge and start thinking things like, "I could spend this $20 on a textbook or a bottle of bourbon... which one really makes more sense for me" and then you're finished.
bourbon sounds quite nice
though i prefer red wine.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-770084
I believe Tom Donaldson wrote an article entitled “The Singularity has been Cancelled” but i can no longer locate it.
In any event, you’ll have a very long wait for the Singularity — but it is much more than you need to deal with the problem you cite in that sentence.
On the other hand, if you’ve heard of the Singularity then you’ve probably heard of the alternatives.
Thanks for writing these very interesting articles that provoke so many responses!
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-772700
Bravo. I agree that knowing mathematical population genetics helps a lot in discussing HBD and screens out a lot of nonsense.
But I think about 10x as many folks could develop good population-genetical insights and intuitions if there was a really good evolutionary simulation package available.
I learned a lot of evolution from textbooks, but honestly, it was coding and running genetic algorithms that really honed my understanding of evolutionary processes.
Do any such simulation packages exist — preferably as user-friendly as a ‘Civilization’ strategy game?
And if not, perhaps encouraging development of such a thing would broaden appreciation of HBD.
http://www.unz.com/gnxp/population-genetics-is-a-precondition-for-understanding-evolutionary-process/#comment-776669