Re: [-empyre-] Code fury



nick,

I'm told there is no valid research nor any empirical data that supports this claim. The only published research results that claimed to prove this were falsified by the scientists concerned.

Interesting how science does seem to have been properly applied here, as the mechanism has immediately self-corrected and insisted that a more accurate way of seeing the world is available. Hence the question about 'code' - mostly it appears that Watson produces dna/intelligence/race as a religious person might produce god and angels, rather than perform the actual work required to support answers from our difficult world.

steve


Nicholas Ruiz III wrote:
It was just a poiesis...about how vengeful 'code
studies' can be; it remains to be seen if the
discovery and reordering (authoring?) of the Code will
exact a new mythological vengeance on its new
myth-makers. Will the conscience of some new
postmodern Fury justify a 'natural' Code, as the Roman
Furies pursued transgressive ancients in the name of
justice?


Our progeny will tell the tale of our transgressions,
no?

By the way, Watson claims that research substantiates
his claim--anyone seen the data?

Nick



--- "sdv@krokodile.co.uk" <sdv@krokodile.co.uk> wrote:


It might not be clear from the below but Watson's
speech at the Science Museum was cancelled by the Science Museum last
night or early this morning.


The title of Nick's email is rather odd 'code fury'
perhaps you could explain why this title ?


steve
Nicholas Ruiz III wrote:

Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less
intelligent than Westerners



http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3067222.ece?123

Celebrated scientist attacked for race comments:

"All

our social policies are based on the fact that

their

intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the
testing says not really"

By Cahal Milmo
Published: 17 October 2007

One of the world's most eminent scientists was
embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after

he

claimed that black people were less intelligent

than

white people and the idea that "equal powers of
reason" were shared across racial groups was a
delusion.

James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in

the

unravelling of DNA who now runs one of America's
leading scientific research institutions, drew
widespread condemnation for comments he made ahead

of

his arrival in Britain today for a speaking tour

at

venues including the Science Museum in London.

The 79-year-old geneticist reopened the explosive
debate about race and science in a newspaper

interview

in which he said Western policies towards African
countries were wrongly based on an assumption that
black people were as clever as their white
counterparts when "testing" suggested the

contrary. He

claimed genes responsible for creating differences

in

human intelligence could be found within a decade.

The newly formed Equality and Human Rights

Commission,

successor to the Commission for Racial Equality,

said

it was studying Dr Watson's remarks " in full". Dr
Watson told The Sunday Times that he was

"inherently

gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all

our

social policies are based on the fact that their
intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the
testing says not really". He said there was a

natural

desire that all human beings should be equal but
"people who have to deal with black employees find
this not true".

His views are also reflected in a book published

next

week, in which he writes: "There is no firm reason

to

anticipate that the intellectual capacities of

peoples

geographically separated in their evolution should
prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to
reserve equal powers of reason as some universal
heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it
so."

The furore echoes the controversy created in the

1990s

by The Bell Curve, a book co-authored by the

American

political scientist Charles Murray, which

suggested

differences in IQ were genetic and discussed the
implications of a racial divide in intelligence.

The

work was heavily criticised across the world, in
particular by leading scientists who described it

as a

work of " scientific racism".

Dr Watson arrives in Britain today for a speaking

tour

to publicise his latest book, Avoid Boring People:
Lessons from a Life in Science. Among his first
engagements is a speech to an audience at the

Science

Museum organised by the Dana Centre, which held a
discussion last night on the history of scientific
racism.

Critics of Dr Watson said there should be a robust
response to his views across the spheres of

politics

and science. Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the
Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "It is sad to

see

a scientist of such achievement making such

baseless,

unscientific and extremely offensive comments. I

am

sure the scientific community will roundly reject

what

appear to be Dr Watson's personal prejudices.

"These comments serve as a reminder of the

attitudes

which can still exists at the highest professional
levels."

The American scientist earned a place in the

history

of great scientific breakthroughs of the 20th

century

when he worked at the University of Cambridge in

the

1950s and 1960s and formed part of the team which
discovered the structure of DNA. He shared the

1962

Nobel Prize for medicine with his British

colleague

Francis Crick and New Zealand-born Maurice

Wilkins.

But despite serving for 50 years as a director of

the

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island,
considered a world leader in research into cancer

and

genetics, Dr Watson has frequently courted

controversy

with some of his views on politics, sexuality and
race. The respected journal Science wrote in 1990:

"To

many in the scientific community, Watson has long

been

something of a wild man, and his colleagues tend

to

hold their collective breath whenever he veers

from

the script."

In 1997, he told a British newspaper that a woman
should have the right to abort her unborn child if
tests could determine it would be homosexual. He

later

insisted he was talking about a "hypothetical"

choice

which could never be applied. He has also

suggested a

link between skin colour and sex drive, positing

the

theory that black people have higher libidos, and
argued in favour of genetic screening and

engineering

on the basis that " stupidity" could one day be

cured.

He has claimed that beauty could be genetically
manufactured, saying: "People say it would be

terrible

if we made all girls pretty. I think it would

great."

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory said yesterday

that

Dr Watson could not be contacted to comment on his
remarks.

Steven Rose, a professor of biological sciences at

the

Open University and a founder member of the

Society

for Social Responsibility in Science, said: " This

is

Watson at his most scandalous. He has said similar
things about women before but I have never heard

him

get into this racist terrain. If he knew the
literature in the subject he would know he was out

of

his depth scientifically, quite apart from

socially


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Dr. Nicholas Ruiz III Editor, Kritikos http://intertheory.org _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre






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