On Nov 16, 6:22 am, Sarah Vaughan wrote:

If you want to get into eugenics, I suggest you try a breed less complex than
humans. Budgies, maybe.

snort Love that line... ;-)

It depends how simplistic Beliavsky wants to be about it. "If my
daughter marries a smart man then she'll have smarter children" has
holes in the logic that you could drive a truck through. "Marrying a
smart man is one of many ways in which my granddaughter can maximise her
chances of having smarter children" is a lot more realistic, and I
suspect it's a much more accurate statement of his beliefs.

It is, although I would replace "one of many" with "the primary". From
what I have read, there is little one can do to boost a child's
intelligence beyond its natural limits, but bad enough parenting can
certainly stunt or even kill a child.

Whether marrying a smart man in a calculated attempt to get smarter
children is a *desirable* thing to be aiming to get your daughter to do
is a completely different matter, of course.

What's undesirable about it? It would apply to sons too, since AFAIK
the IQs of the two parents matter equally Of course, there are other
characteristics, such as looks, character, athletic ability etc. that
also have some heritability and that someone would consider. Of course
you would want a spouse that is smart, good-looking and kind for your
own sake, too.

When looking for a spouse, I was not looking for someone whose
interests were very similar to mine. I'd probably still be single if I
had held out for a right-wing, stock-market-following, chess-playing,
computer programming, atheist Asian Indian woman. In fact my wife is
uninterested in politics, is not an avid chess player, does not
program, and is Hindu. She likes to paint and garden. I did not give
her an IQ test, but dummies don't become physicians, and she seemed
smart in general. To sum up, I don't believe in the "soul-mate" or "I
want someone just like me" approaches to mate selection but rather in
looking for qualities that are more objectively desirable (and likely
to be passed on).