Cousinly love stays Domitian’s hand → A Jewish emperor, if not a Jewish empire → 2000 years of pogroms against someone else → The Manhattan Project is the Berlin Project → Uh-oh
The Jewish scientists who were so central to the creation of the atomic bomb might not have inherited their brain power if Jewish people had not been artificially pressurized to select for intelligence?
I don't know if I fully buy that biological explanation but Scott Alexander of Astral Codex Ten fame makes the point/review some book or other making that point...
What you say is true, but…I mean, in this counterfactual world there would be no Hitler because none of Hitler's ancestors, for many generations, would have been born, so having German nukes may have been no big deal. Not only wouldn't Einstein have been smart, he wouldn't have been alive. When I pretend that there are still people named Enrico Fermi etc. after two thousand years of different history I'm pulling a fast one, and I can only acknowledge it.
I don't know if I buy the biological explanation, but my lack of an explanation can be baffling. The world's greatest escape artist was Jewish. The world's greatest comic artist was Jewish. Both the world's greatest advice columnist and the runner up for world's greatest advice columnist were Jewish. (I guess I mean "America's greatest" and not "world's greatest.") I don't know how smart Ann Landers was, but she was really good at her niche. How do you select for excellence in advice columning? (The fact that the two advice columnists were twins brings up its own biological conundra.)
In any event, my publishers have asked me to make clear that I have absolutely zero controversial opinions on any subject.
The Jewish scientists who were so central to the creation of the atomic bomb might not have inherited their brain power if Jewish people had not been artificially pressurized to select for intelligence?
I don't know if I fully buy that biological explanation but Scott Alexander of Astral Codex Ten fame makes the point/review some book or other making that point...
What you say is true, but…I mean, in this counterfactual world there would be no Hitler because none of Hitler's ancestors, for many generations, would have been born, so having German nukes may have been no big deal. Not only wouldn't Einstein have been smart, he wouldn't have been alive. When I pretend that there are still people named Enrico Fermi etc. after two thousand years of different history I'm pulling a fast one, and I can only acknowledge it.
I don't know if I buy the biological explanation, but my lack of an explanation can be baffling. The world's greatest escape artist was Jewish. The world's greatest comic artist was Jewish. Both the world's greatest advice columnist and the runner up for world's greatest advice columnist were Jewish. (I guess I mean "America's greatest" and not "world's greatest.") I don't know how smart Ann Landers was, but she was really good at her niche. How do you select for excellence in advice columning? (The fact that the two advice columnists were twins brings up its own biological conundra.)
In any event, my publishers have asked me to make clear that I have absolutely zero controversial opinions on any subject.