NOESIS

The Journal of the Mega Society

Number 122
August 1998
EDITOR
it Rosner
3711 Rhodes Ave
IL Hollywood CA 91807-1827
(818) 988-8230
STANDARD NOTICES: Dues are two bucks per issue. Back issues are a buck
fifty. Checks are payable to Rosner, not Noesis or Mega. One free issue for each
two pages of published material you submit.

IN THIS ISSUE:

NINE ITEMS FROM KEVIN LANGDON--

PROPOSED EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
COMMENTS ON RECENT ISSUES OF NOESIS
REPLY TO PAUL MAXIM RE: MENSA & ISPE
REPLY TO RON HOEFLIN ON FREE WILL
REPLY TO CHRIS LANGAN
Ii REPLY TO ROBERT DICK ON PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATION
REPLY TO ROBERT DICK ON THE STATE OF THE EARTH
REPLY TO PAUL MAXIM ON THE LAIT
TO BECOME A GENERALIST

INCHOATE DIVAGATIONS BY RICHARD MAY

TWO LETTERS AND A TELESCOPE ARTICLE FROM CHRIS HARDING
CHESS PROBLEMS BY JEFF WARD.)
+(YOU CAN ININ A FREE YEAR OF NOESIS, WHICH, AT THE CURRENT
RATE OF PUBLICATION, MEANS THE REST OF THE MILLENIUM)
BIRD DRAWINGS BY CELIA MANOLESCO
 Chess Problems by Jeff Ward
Proposed Editorial Guidelines
2.
Kevin Langdon
P.O. Box 795
Berkeley, CA 94701 8 8
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] 7 7
6 6
A number of Mega members have complained about the appear- 5 5
ance of certain types of material in Noesis.
4 4
As demonstrated by the recent election for Editor, members are 3 3
reluctant to turn out an incumbent who's doing a good job of getting out
issues of Noesis on a reasonably frequent schedule, but there is nonethe- 2 2
less clearly some dissatisfaction with the way material is selected for
publication. 1 1
abcde f gh a bcde f g h
According to Mega's Constitution and established procedures,
any member can call for a vote on a proposal at any time. Therefore, White mates in two White mates in two
without any bad feelings toward Rick, among whose supporters I count
myself, I would like to offer the following proposed editorial guidelines,
each to be voted on separately by the membership:
1. No accusation of crime or misconduct shall be published without
proof of the truth of the accusation being furnished by the accuser nor
without the accused person or persons being afforded the opportunity
to reply in the same issue of Noesis in which the accusation is printed.
2. Each non-member of the Mega Society shall be limited to no more
than four pages of material published in Noesis per calendar quarter.
3. No dot-matrix-printed material shall be published without retyping.
4. No material shall be reduced below 8-point type.
5. Tabular material shall be limited to a maximum of four pages. --RA at p'tA P frtt4 ft, Ketirs

When I spoke with Rick about my intention to offer some pro- Ce..4-./CaW 0%-twt-d
posals to be voted on, he requested that I collect them in a document in oUaLt frpLA,..-11;70
a larger point size so that members wouldn't miss them. I have done
that here. (atiA0 aleAnAlt 4
Comments on these proposals should be sent to the Editor in time
for the next issue, after which we'll take a vote on them.
/

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 2 NOESIS Nubiber 122 August 1996 page 31
 CHESS PROBLEMS BY JEFF WARD
DEADLINE DECEMBER IS, 1998 Comments on Recent Issues or Noesis

Kevin Langdon
For your amusement and entertainment, I am submitting eight onginal chess problems for publication in P.O. Box 795
Noesis. There will be two problems per issue, beginning with this one. I composed most of the problems Berkeley, CA 94701
many years ago when, for a relatively brief period of time. I became fascinated with this type of puzzle. Two (510) 524-0345
of the problems were published in a British magazine; the remainder have never been published. The 75061.3251@[Link]
member or subscriber who correctly solves the largest number (minimum of four correct) will receive a free
subscription to Noesis for a full year. In case of a tie, a name will be randomly drawn from those who are tied.
I applaud Paul Maxim's essay, "The Kormes Case and Its Aftermath," in
For those unfamiliar with the format of chess problems, the challenge is to find the sequence of moves that Noesis #116. The ISPE has consistently acted to suppress dissent, with no regard for
accomplishes the indicated goal. With these eight problems, the goal is to checkmate Black in the stated due process. It's good that Mr. Maxim has pointed out the one-sidedness of the
number of White moves. White always moves first. In general, there is only one White move in response ISPE 's reporting, in Telitont, of the judge's findings in John Kormes' lawsuit against
to each possible Black move. You must assume that Black will always make the best possible move, even
the society. I have one small correction. Mr. Maxim wrote that six ISPE members
if the only result is to delay the White checkmate beyond the stated number of moves.
were expelled in 1979. The members he was referring to are the founders of the
For example, if the problem caption says White mates in two," only one White first move guarantees a Triple Nine Society. There were only/lye of us, including Ron Hoeflin and me.
checkmate of Black on White's second move. All other White first moves allow Black to at least delay the
checkmate. I was interested in Glenn Arthur Morrison's proposal for a synthetic-
aperature space telescope in Noesis #117. Mr. Morrison proposes placing the
You need not supply White's checkmating move nor Black's last move as part of your answer. However, all telescope in orbit around the earth/moon system at a distance of about 1.85 lunar-
prior moves by both sides must be supplied. Specifically, your answer should contain the following: orbit radii, noting that this orbit would be unstable, requiring periodic corrections.
Perhaps the lunar L4 or L5 point would be a better choice. These two points are
• 2-move problems: White's first move. along the moon's orbit, sixty degrees on either side of the moon. Objects in such
• 3-move problems: White's first move: each possible Black first move with the appropriate White orbits which begin to drift away will tend to be shepherded by dynamic forces back
second move in response. into place. Judging from Mr. Morrison's considerable technical knowledge, I would
• 4-move problems: White's first move; each possible Black first move with the appropnate White have expected him to have considered this possibility--and perhaps he did so and
second move in response; each possible Black second move with the appropriate White third move found this solution technically unfeasible; if so I would be interested to know the
in response. reason. (One possible reason is the expected presence in the 1.4 and L.5 regions of a
certain amount of naturally accumulated dust and debris, suspended there through
Partially correct answers will be disqualified. the dynamic forces mentioned above, although, as far as I know, such material has
not been detected to date.)
You can use any notation system you want to describe the moves as long as it provides clear and
unambiguous information. You may want to use the conventional system in which each square of the board I'd like to correct two errors in my "Reply to Paul Maxim on the Norming of
has a unique coordinate based on rows (ranks) numbered 1-8 and columns (files) a-h. The pieces are the LAIS" in #117. One item out of six (rather than one out of 16) was wrong among
abbreviated: K for king, CI for queen, R for rook, B for bishop: S for knight (to differentiate from the king), and the "answers" to items on the GAIT published by New Zealand Mensa (Singapore
P for pawn. got 16 out of 16). And the number of testees in the sample used in the first norming
of the LAIT was 147, not 155.
A move is descnbed by noting the piece moved followed by the destination square. For example, a move by
the queen to the lower left comer of the board is described as Cla1. Captures are signified by: x; and checks
by +. For example, if a rook captures a pawn while delivering check on square c2, the notation is: Rac24. Paul Maxim's character assassination and groundless accusations of fraud in
Castling is 0-0 (kingside) or 0-0-0 (queenside); en passant is e.p.; and pawn promotion is indicated by: = his letter in #119 titled "Response to Kevin Langdon's Letters in NOESIS Nos. 117
followed by the piece selected. (Underpromotion of a pawn, if possible, should always be considered in a and 118" do not deserve a reply.
chess problem.) For example, a pawn move to the a8 square with promotion to a queen is described as
Pal3=0; or if a knight is selected, Pa8=S. Occasionally, in order to avoid ambiguity, it is necessary to indicate In his letter in #119, Chris Harding denied being the source of the erroneous
either the origin square of the move or what kind of piece was captured. Guinness "highest I.Q." listing. The 1982 edition includes the following sentence:
"Comparison close to the ceilings are impracticable as are comparabilities between
The board is oriented so that Black is at the top and White is at the bottom. In other words, in the starting one scale and another." I believe that this wording appeared in a document authored
position of a game. White's king is on square el. by Chis prior to the date of publication of the Gsanness listing, but this document
might have reached the Guinness people from another source.
Send all solutions by the indicated deadline to:
As readers of this publication know, I have not always been able to appreciate
Jeff Ward Ron Yannone's material, but I found his article titled 'The Making of Optical
13155 Wimberly Square 0284 Illusions," in Noesis #120, very interesting. I enjoy these effects and would like the
San Diego, CA 92128 reference for the "Optical Toys" company which he mentioned at the end of his
article. (I suspect that other readers of Noesis would also be interested in this.)
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 30
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 3
 Reply to Paul Maxim on the Relative Performance of Menu
The puzzle to me is that Mr. Maxim is allowed to make demand after demand on
and ISPE Members on Various Measures of Intellectual AbIlity each of us whom he disagrees with. It resembles the insults that fly around on
the Internet about Mensa. THESE ON-GOING INSULTS WE CAN DO
Kevin Langdon WITHOUT.
P.O. Box 795
Berkeley, CA 94701 I don't' usually publish or comment on letters I receive but since he has already
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] indicated such correspondence with some of us I may state his previous letters
to me have already questioned the status of Kevin Langdon on a whole range of
issues which I have repeatedly denied as have others according to letters I have
In "How Intelligent Is ISPE?" (Noes& #116) Paul Maxim noted that the here from them which I have received from time to time in the last few years: yet
scores of ISPE members are not significantly different from those of Mensa members
on my tests and Ron Hoeffin's. Mr. Maxim wrote: he still goes public with the same wild accusations as though he has not read
our replies!
Interpretation. In searching for some possible explanation for these unusual results, a
number of theories might be considered, as follows: That Mr. Maxim cannot check up on many things is something confined to
I. The Mena members enjoyed some special "advantage" as compared to the himself; I founded ISPE 22 years ago and my work in psychometrics pre-dates
ISPE members, such as "self-selection": i.e., only the most intelligent Memans came
forward to take Mega. this yet he finds it strange that such data is no longer available presumably to
This theory doesn't seem to bold any special plausibility, since by the late 1980's, him—why should it be available to him? I know of no one in the field who would
there were enough ISPE members to allow "self-selection" to operate there as well make score results available to the public. Results in summary have already
In fact, the results of this study appear to argue against the entire concept of "self- been published widely. This is all anyone ever does after all. I would point out
selection," precisely because the ISPE members did so poorly.
to newer members of the Mega Society (points in fact already made) that I was
Not everyone can be expected to be equally enthusiastic about submitting twice asked to join the International Test commission, the world body policing
answers to very difficult 1.0. tests; a greater percentage of those who can do well will test construction, on the basis of my published work. I resigned in January of
probably do so. Certainly, a higher percentage of ISPE members than a Mensa this year after being a member for over a decade but my resignation has not
members actually took the LAIT and the Mega Test. The fact that the principle of been accepted. I cannot have a higher recommendation for my work than this.
self-selection applies to members of both Mensa and ISPE does not mean that it can-
not apply to these two classes differentially.
There is a point in all our lives for everything—that point having passed we
Mr. Maxim wrote: cannot be brought back to account for those interests/activities that have long
passed their 'use-by' date. As far as I am concerned I have won acceptance
Further Confirmation Needed. One further mode of confirmation which might be from those who count and in this respect I am by no means alone.
applied to the above studies would be to gather statistics pertaining to the perfor-
mance of both Mensans and ISPE members on standard tests. The main difficulty
here is to obtain the data from those who (presumably) have it; both Mensa and ISPE As for fights that go on within the various high-IQ/AQ groups.. .these are much
have proven uncooperative in this regard. Alter all, it is now rather late in the day; like back-fence arguments between neighbors—a model I have always thought a
had they wanted to perform these kinds of studies, and make their results public, they good one for wars. More or less amounts of that wonderful stuff called
would have done so a long time ago. democracy have nothing to do with it. The boundary is reached when the
A oetain amount of data pertaining to standard test scores reported by members activities of those who wish to continue with their disputes reach the point where
of these two societies is aho in the pcussession of Messrs. Langdon and Hoeflin, since
each LAIT and/or Mega testa was called upon to report such scores along with it begins to destabilize the organization. There are two views of this—they are
submission of his test form for scoring So far, to the best of my knowledge, such held both public (as a concept) and internal (within the personality framework of
"standard" score data has never been compiled and published, but perhaps these two the person) and at some point the editor issues a statement that the matter is
testmaken will now come forward, and shed a little more factual illumination on this now closed when he starts receiving complaints from the members that XYZ has
important topic. taken up too much journal space and that others wish also to be published and
Mr. Maxim is right about the unfortunate failure of the high-I.Q. societies to that people are sick of the debate. ISPE's cutoff in this regard is around one or
make use of data in their possession for studies of this kind. I was disappointed, but two letters. In our case it seems to resemble Cantors transfinite numbers.
not surprised, to read in his essay that "We have been told, by a responsible Mensa
officer, that, folllowing the testing and/or evaluation of each candidate, all test data is Chris. Harding
destroyed, save for a notation, in the member's file, as to which test he or she qualified
on." [italics Maxim's]

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 4 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 29
telescope in Rockhampton is that built by my life-long friend Bob Berry which
has an aperture of 14 inches and focal length of 130 inches and weighs a Dr. Hoeflin does all his statistical work by hand, so it may be difficult for him
quarter of a ton! This can be used with powers up to at least x812 that we have to perform a study of this kind, but I am happy to oblige. I did a study on a sample of
so far tested. It is a very fine instrument and I hope to use a barlow lens on this LAIT testees, with the following results:
in the near future as it would be capable of standing a much higher power. As
Number and Mean Score on Various Tests by Society Membership,
for the focal length of my own mirror I decided to play this one by ear if not by Based on Previous Scores Reported by 3580 Recent LAIT Testees
eye! I would begin with both an open mind and with little in the way of
expectations about the outcome-given the size of the task I would be setting Test Mensa Intertel Top 1% ISPE TNS FSS
myself.
Cattell Verbal
20 9 3 3 5
April 4, 1996: Thursday-Novus delivered the 30-inch mirror blank to the house; Mean 154.4 150.0 138.7 149.7 143.4
I watched the two men struggle in with it, at this point admitting that one of the CI'MM
outer disks (What other disk could it have been?) had only been 'spot glued,' 18 9 3 3
something which added further worries for me. They did however say I would Mean 141.9 141.2 130.7 146.7
GRE
not be able to get the disks apart at this point. I decided to let everything settle
7 16
for some time in the hope that the lamination would 'firm up' with time if indeed Mean 1463 1445
this could add anything to the quality of the job already done-at least I would Mega
maximize my chances if nothing else. 7 8 6 9
Mean 24.3 23.5 24.7 34.1
Raven
May 10, 1996: Friday--I took delivery of the 20-inch laminated tool I would be 6 3 5
grinding the mirror with. This consisted of two 51 cm diameter disks glued Mean 34.2 34.0 34.4
together in the same way as the 30-inch blank; one 0.6 of an inch (15mm) thick, SAT
the other 0.4 of an inch giving a combined thickness less the glue of 1 inch 6 3 4 21
which I thought should be adequate to act as a tool for the larger blank. Due to Mean 1430 1457 1461 1435
Stanford-Binet
out-of-season rains I had been delayed in obtaining my finished tool from Novus
3 9
who wanted to place the job in the sun to firm it up. Mean 148.7 167.8
Titan
3 3 3
July 22, 1996 Mean 23.0 23.0 23.0
WAIS
8 4 6 3
Here we go yet again: Mean 140.6 140.8 139.0 138.7
W-87
How many more times must I repeat that the only person quoted as having a 196 5 3 3
IQ in the 1982 edition of Guinness was Leta Speyer. I did, don't, and probably Mean 172.6 168.3 179.3
won't know the EXACT EQUIVALENT score Kevin Langdon's test would make
Notes: Results were not reported for N less than three. There was not enough data to include the
on the Binet, only that he out-ranked considerably those of OTHER Mega Prometheus and Mega societies.
members on the two tests reviewed, making it quite obvious he is in. This point
has previously been covered in statements by myself and others. As for myself The Mensa members included in the LATT sample are not a random sample
and for others we were at one point required some years ago to back up the of Mensans. Results for the CalleU Verbal, CTMM, and WAIS reflect the reliance of
Mega membership records which were placed in the official membership list Mensa and Intertel on these instruments for selection of members; clearly these
standard tests are measuring something which differs in certain respects from what is
published at the time: THAT OCCURRED BECAUSE THE TWO MEGA measured by the high-range tests constructed by Dr. Hoeflin, Alan Aax, and me. The
SOCIETIES ONCE AGAIN GOT BACK TOGETHER-SOMETHING KNOWN TO GRE and SAT lack sufficient ceiling to discriminate at high levels. The Mega, Raven,
ALL THE THEN-CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE MEGA SOCIETY. I don't know and Titan tests tend to be taken only by highly gifted individuals and thus do not show
how many members have joined since who were not on that list. This comment significant differences between members of the societies represented here. W-87
is for their benefit not Mr. Maxim. scores are clearly inflated. If the mean of the W-87 is 100, the standard deviation is in
the vicinity of 28. However, ISPE members do tend to score higher than Mensa and
Intertel members on this test used for ISPE admissions.

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 28 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 5
 A 78cm MIRROR?
Reply to Ron Hoeflin on Free Will
April 1, 1996:today I took possession of the 3 disks of glass that had been on
Kevin Langdon order from [Link]: There are 78 cm in diameter and of 12mm thickness
P.O. Box 795 (30.7" x .5"). After taking into account the beveled edges this comes down to
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 524-0345 30.55 inches which edge will need to be maintained throughout the grinding
75061.3251@[Link] process to prevent splintering of the disk's edge and potentially fatal scarring of
the optical surface I shall therefore in future refer to the mirror as the 30 1/2
inch mirror or just to the 30-inch mirror to avoid any exaggeration of its size! I
In "Ron Hoeflin on Kevin Langdon and Free Will," in Noesis #118, Ron immediately took them around to Novus windscreens (by taxi, the taxi driver
wrote:
driving very slowly and refusing to handle them on being told how much they had
In Noesis #115, page 9, Kevin Langdon concedes that there may be free will, but cost me!) who said they would be able to glue the three disks of glass together
"the possibility of freedom resides in the attention." But it remains unclear to me why and that the ultra-strength glue they would be using would hold the three disks
attention itself exists if it cannot be put to use to accomplish anything. together for a lifetime! Perhaps they had noted I am already of a fair age!
Amateurs have for decades experimented with laminated disks for telescope
Ron is asking a good question here. If attention did not serve a useful
function, the complex circuitry which supports it would not have arisen in the brains mirrors but only recently with anything that looks like success.
of animals.
I estimated the weight of the mirror blank at 112 lbs. My current body weight is
Many expedient actions are carried out by animals reflexively or through 212 lbs. (Since first writing this I have learned my scales, bless them, are 5kg or
other instinctive (hard-wired) activity, which takes no attention. Brain-dead people 12Ibs under!) Since it would be quite impossible for me to work the mirror by
have reflexes, blood circulation, etc. Other actions involve only a mechanical, rote
attention (one stroke in brushing one's teeth, taking one step, myriads of tiny habits); hand face down over a full-size tool given its size and my medical condition, I
such actions involve some attention but no intention. Still others involve a weighing had instead intended to grind, polish and figure the optical surface face-up using
process in which motivating forces meet and are felt together, resulting in an a sub-diameter tool of 51 cm or just over 20 inches which should prove hopefully
intention. But this is still not free will. One is moved by forces; the vector sum of the just within my current physical capacity. At the outset it was unknown how fast
forces is the intention. the concaving process would be or how far in the focus could be brought before
The attention is lazy; it's in the habit of wandering. In order to reason about
my sheer persistence alone might be found wanting. A few preliminary computer
something, organize all the factors involved, and reach a conclusion, a force must checks using a program I'd written showed me that to correct such a large mirror
oppose the tendency to free associate. When thought becomes habitual it is no to within 1/8 of a wave of light would be nigh on impossible. A figure brought to
longer properly called thought, but only associating; this, also, is not freewill. It takes within 1/4 of a wave also looked nearly as bad in the design stage. Instead I
an active effort to maintain concentration. In addition to intellectual thought, there is planned to make what is commonly called a 'light bucket.' Such a telescope
a kind of active "thought" involved in the functioning of the emotions, movement, would be quite satisfactory for star work and perhaps even for the lunar surface
and sensation, although Western psychology has no words for it.
but would not reveal any more detail on the planets than say a 12 or 16-inch
Consciousness is passive; thought is active; will mediates bewteen them. Peo- mirror quite apart from the fact that for a perfectly corrected system of this size
ple are confused because their consciousness is active and their thought is passive. on would need uncommonly stable seeing conditions to resolve much finer detail
than these sizes.
Whenever habitual embroidery of what is perceived is taking place, the ener-
gy of consciousness is diverted and one no longer sees the real world. As with
thought, this is not properly called consciousness; it is a kind of "waking sleep." The Rockhampton is just within the tropics and not much above sea level. It is
effort to still the mind and recover the natural minor-like quality of the calm waters separated from the coast by mountain ranges standing as high as 1983 feet and
of consciousness is the aim of what the spiritual traditions call meditation. Advanced has mountains all around it. The mountain areas are built upon for residential
practitioners of meditative disciplines develop an awareness of the presence of the purposes. A test of a lot of these sites using up to a 10-inch telescope showed
primordial stillness underneath even the most frenetic external activity and remain no noticeable gain over the main area of the town. We have yet to test the Mt.
open to clear perception of reality. This is the meaning of the Taoist and Zen prin- Morgan ranges. Our seeing is in general superior to that of Bundeberg (site of
ciple sometimes expressed in English as "Don't push the river."
the 19-inch telescope) which sits almost on the coast and ahead of the big cities
Only through the control of attention by the will do consciousness and thought Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne but our seeing is still far from the best
occupy their rightful places and serve a larger whole. available in the country. At the time of writing the largest full operational

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 6 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 27
 TWO LETTERS AND A TELESCOPE ARTICLE FROM CHRIS HARDING
Reply to Chris Langan's Response
Dear Rick: 5-22-96
Kevin Langdon
Here we go again: P.O. Box 795
Berkeley, CA 94701
Maxim accuses me and others once more. I suspect that he is aware that many (510) 524-0345
of our Mega members would be classed as public figures by the courts which 75061.3251@[Link]
gives him immunity under U.S. defamation laws.
Please let me say this: On the two tests where Kevin Langdon was compared to
other Mega members, he clearly outranked them. These tests are as much a I have a few thoughts on "Chris Langan Responds to Kevin Langdon," in
Noesis #118. Chris wrote:
template of mental performance and level as any of the other high-level tests
such as those in more common use for Mega selection. I for one have never When I called for an election, it was supposed to include editorial guidelines on
been one to deny someone something. Topping a data processors exam is I am content, scheduling, circulation, and so on. Since no guidelines were included, the
sad to say not quite the same thing. Why does Mr. Maxim not take the same election I called for has not been held.
tests as Kevin?
Any member of Mega can make a proposal to be voted on by the membership
As for his assertion that Kevin Langdon and I are very good buddies, one only at any time, but it's up to the member to word his or her own proposals. I agree that
has to read some of Kevin's on-going comments to realize otherwise. Wasn't I it's a good idea to have some editorial guidelines. My proposals for such guidelines
the founder of that Society called I.S.P.E. from which Kevin was expelled (during appear elsewhere in this issue of Noesis. Crhis is free to present proposals of his own
the late 1970's)? No wounds have ever healed here. to be voted on by Mega members.
As for norm errors in tests: Knowing (if it's the case) that a test is out by five
points at one place on its scale will tell one nothing about any other place on the As for Chris' remarks about the questionable legitimacy of the election proce-
dures, it doesn't matter, because it wasn't even close. In the real world, Rick is the
scale. Populations themselves can be strikingly atypical of each other. Many Editor of Noesis; I'm not interested in rehashing this and, obviously, neither is
such reports have been made about this in the psychometric literature. anybody else besides Chris.
It seems to me that Paul Maxim's attacks have about them a scatter-gun
approach to the problem he is grappling with. Rather than engaging in I'm not sure you understood me when I asked how to elicit a confession of plagiarism
absurdities he might take some of the high-level tests Kevin and others have in the absence of legal force. Of the three kinds of proprietary law affecting U.S.
citizens, none covers either mathematical or philosophical ideas. If these can be
already taken. If at the end of the day he is able to qualify, he will have proven a paraphrased, then in the absence of speical agreements, they can be stolen with legal
point about his ability to take and master tests. If however he cannot, he should impunity. This leaves only professional censure as a deterrente. Unfortunately, pro-
forfeit the right to claims of being misunderstood. either way he should cease fessionals tend to run in herds. They aren't generally too interested in what
his attacks on us. nonprofessionals claim to have thought of first.

I understand the question; Chris doesn't understand the answer. It's true that
Chris Harding ideas can't be trademarked, copyrighted, or patented (although the courts have
shown an inclination to allow the protection of algorithms under certain conditions).
P.S.: I'm going to add installment number one of my new project--a 30-inch And they aren't eligible for protection as trade secrets, either. It's also true that
telescope mirror which I'm currently quite excited about. I'll break this professionals tend to protect their own and ignore outsiders, though many of the best
contribution up into parts to save any possible member irritation at having to of them do not share this ignoble trait. Chris' problem is to get his stuff noticed either
by enough people or by important enough people that nobody can get away with steal-
read reams of uninteresting detail about this newer experiment of mine. You ing it.
see, as before, I'll be reporting it blow-by-blow as the drama unfolds! I might say
at the outset I have a strong (guesstimated) probability of failure. a friend and Let's try a little thought experiment. Somebody devises a high-range I.Q. test
member of the local astronomy club Jeff A., who called back after the meeting including items showing five views of a three-dimensional object and requesting the
last Thursday and who saw the two big glass disks for the first time said, 'You testee to draw the sixth view. He claims to have invented this item type. Many people
are a brave man." Well, a fryer if nothing else! point out that the originator of items of this type was Ronald K. Hoeflin. Ron isn t a
millionaire; he doesn t have a huge advertising budget. But he's been smart enough
to get his stuff noticed.

You see, after all these years,I'm no longer sure that anything of a philosophical
nature is capable of impressing any Mega member at this point in his or her life....

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 26 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 7
 Page 4
Petitioning such people for the kind of attention I need is an exercise in self-
flagellation. Sports worship is the penultimately sublime expression of
the human spirit and ought to be everywhere and at all times
I sympathize with Chris on this point. It's very difficult to entice people to encouraged as the supreme value, except in so far as it detracts
make any intellectual efforts. But, as I've said before, the most practical first step from America worship. Nationalism is never idolatry. (Whatever
would be for Chris to write a primer on his ideas. I'm glad that he's actually doing so. nation one happens to be born in one owes total patriotic
I promise to read it all the way through, eventually, as other commitments permit. If allegiance to every evil present there, which is to be upheld as
people were able to grasp some simple ideas concretely they might be more willing to the good. This allegiance to evil based upon accident of birth
struggle with his more abstruse material. is a great virtue.) And, of course, God would only require that
the minutiae of our supposed theological beliefs be correct.
According to you, I'm "the one who craves recognition." If you mean that I'm The propositions of an Ideology are either absolutely true
the only such person in this group, you're dead wrong. not only would you fall afoul or absolutely false as mathematical theorems are true or false,
of human psychology, but several members (you included) have announced various or at very least as equations in physics are correct or
high-profile projects of your own, and at least one other member--Rick Rosner--has incorrect. How convenient it is for our leaders that though
stated repeatedly, in his habitual eye-catching way, that he wants to be famous. physical reality has four or perhaps eleven or more dimensions,
political reality has only one dimension (left-right) or at most
I'm well aware of the presence of a number of well-developed egos in the two dimensions, if time is included. The space of Ideology
Mega Society. My remarks were in relation to Chris' complaints about his material consists of only a left-right dimension with neither a vertical
not being received as cordially as, in his opinion, would have been appropriate. The dimension nor a dimension of depth. (Not that Ideological
point is that other people have their own interests and concerns. If Chris wants his assertions literally lack depth.) There is no up wing and down
stuff to be recognized, it's up to him to figure out how to get that recognition. wing, or front wing and back wing. Liberal and conservative,
Complaining about lack of recognition is a sure-fire recipe for not being taken libertarian and populist, social left and right, and economic
seriously. left and right: one is the totality of invariant goodness and
truth; the other the totality of invariant evil and untruth. The
Kevin, one thing should by now be obvious to you: my work isn't easy to shoot down. interplay or dance of the polarities in multidimensional space-
You attribute this to imprenetrability, but you're dissembling. Men have tried and time is quite unimportant. One's own Ideology is surely an
men have died. accurate model of reality, not in large measure one which
attempts to induce others to believe or not to believe this and
Chris' stuff reminds me of the Polish Godfather: he'll make you an offer you to do or not to do that. Reality is so much less unwieldy when
can't understand. When a proposition isn't clearly stated, the more sensible cntics it is packaged in an uncomplicated Ideology.
don't see anything to shoot at, while the fools rush in to dispute what they don't Marxists hold that property is theft, whereas libertarians
understand. This doesn't prove anything, one way or the other. claim that taxation is theft. Never think that Ideology itself
is theft; theft of reason; theft of truth. The people are only a
symbol of the flag. Life is always less precious than an
Ideology.

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 8 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 25
 Page 3
If the job market does not absorb the resultant progeny, then one Reply to Robert Dick on Psychiatric Medication
could always expand enrollment at Harvard Medical School to
whatever extent is required. Kevin Langdon
It is imperative that the laws criminalizing homicide be P.O. Box 795
repealed immediately and that the Decalogue also be accordingly Berkeley, CA 94701
revised. Clearly these laws discriminate statistically against (510) 524-0345
certain politically-correct groups and not to repeal them is 75061.3251@[Link]
racist (and sexist). We cannot condone laws which discriminate
against certain racial, ethnic, or gender groups, while favoring
others. This is, of course, not to be confused with "affirmative I was interested in Robert Dick's letter regarding psychiatric medication in
action" and opposition to the practice of "affirmative action", #118. Robert has calmed down about the matters on which we disagree and pro-
which is manifestly quite different. duced some thought-provoking material which deserves a serious response.
Obviously court-ordered busing to achieve "racial balance"
in the public schools did not go far enough and should have been Robert wrote:
reinforced by Federally-mandated interracial marriage. "Forced
boating" ought to have been utilized also to install dolphins First, let me note that there are two different kinds of "spaced-outness" in the
from our coastal waters in the public schools to achieve species "mentally" ill. First historically, after many years of being overexcited, people fall into
balance and to enhance academic standards. a burnt-out stupor. The mental health professionals call this regression.
On the subject of race and intelligence, it is The problem I am most interested in, because it seems to be mine, is an excess of
incontrovertible that I.Q. tests measure nothing but the cultural dopamine in the brain. I think of dopamine as the significance chemicaL When I have
privilege and racial/gender bias of the dominant oppressor group, too much everything seems to be highly significant You may think you would keep
and that intelligence could have no possible genetic basis, even your bearings if this happened to you, but I asssure you you wouldn't. Anyway, after
if it had any importance. Historically, progress in science and decades of universal high significance you bum out Nothing seems any more signifi-
in mathematics in particular can be traced to individuals having cant than anything else, and it all makes no sense, so why bother? You sit in a chair
high Emotional Intelligence (E.Q.), who are certainly not all day, if you are lucky, or you wander the streets a "spaced-out" relic, if you are not.
distinguished by analytical ability and knowledge. (If you The other "spaced out" effect is a side effect of medication.
entertain a different view, then you are necessarily a racist
and/or sexist.) Nevertheless the U.S. government has a clear and I agree with the implications of the quotation marks around "mentally." The
obvious moral imperative to institute a program of systematically conditions in question are at least as much disorders of the emotions and the body as
brain-damaging at birth the infants of any racial-ethnic groups of the intellect.
or gender group suspected of distinguishing themselves in the
domain of either I.Q. tests or actual intellectual/cultural I've known a number of people who did large quantities of psychedelics in the
achievement as a minimalist strategy for achieving equality and 60's who "burned out." They seem to have permanently lost some key circuits in their
combating racism and sexism. Perhaps the fetuses of these groups brains; not a single one I've known has ever recovered a certain basic equilibrium
must be selectively aborted; not to abort them would be that we recognize as "normal." Some mentally ill people I've known have suffered
genocidal. from a similar condition.
Originally there were, of course, an infinite number of
distinct and mutually contradictory divine revelations to an Science has a lot going for it; I have great respect for the scientific method,
infinity of prophets. Endless free-market competition among which insists on concrete verification before conclusions are taken to be true. But a
various infinities of revelations culminated in the Torah of weakness of scientists--and of those who imitate them, like most "mental health pro-
Moses, the Quran, etc. which outsold the others shekel for fessionals"--is the tendency to coin terminology indiscriminately, without regard for
shekel, thereby validating their value. Hence we see that the that simplicity and order which avoids unnecessary confusion and conduces to the
free market is the source of revelation itself, and therefore smooth operation of memory. It is unfortunate that burnout after chronic overexcite-
also of all revealed human values. (Fortuitously the revelations ment is called "regression," because this lends itself to confusion with the same term
received by one's own tribe are inerrant and final for all time, as it is used in psychoanalysis: to designate the reemergence of ego states corres-
whereas those received by the other tribes are less than ponding to earlier periods in the life of the analysand.
inestimable.) Perhaps, too, the Dow of Wall Street is identical
synchronistically with the ineffable Tao of Chinese philosophy. Robert is right that an excess of dopamine seems to be involved in
Jesus was a loser, perhaps the ultimate loser. How much did schizophrenia. According to Robert M. Julien, in A Primer of aug Action (San Fran-
his Father in heaven pay him for dying on the cross and taking cisco: W.H. Freeman, 3rd Edition, 1981), p. 127:
away sins and all that? So were the Hebrew prophets, Lao-Tzu,
and the innumerable Buddhas - all losers. A dopamine theory of schizophrenia is based upon pharmacological evidence that
drugs that block dopamine receptors ... within the CNS are clinically useful in the
treatment of schizophrenia. The phenothiazines, of which chlorpromazine is an
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 24
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 9
 example, are a class of drugs that block these drpamine receptors and that are Page 2
currently the drugs of choice in the treatment of schizophrenia. Conversely, drugs
that stimulate these dopamine receptors produce a state that closely resembles Throughout the history of Western culture, the ancient Greek
schizophrenia Amphetamine ... is a drug that is a stimulant of dopmine . philosophers, the Hebrew prophets, the Church fathers, and Jesus
receptors, and amphetamine-induced psychosis is at the present time the best are as one in their estimation of confidence as the paramount
available model of acute schizophrenia. virtue. The leading U.S. presidential contender when queried as
to whom he would choose as his running mate said that he would
The phenothiazines are the drugs mentioned by Robert in #107. He is also pick someone who was confident.
correct that the beginning of widespread use of phenothiazines and other psychiatric Der Fuehrer was confident; Kafka was not. (Be confident and
medications coincided with a marked decline in psychiatric hospitalization. Figure 7.1 smile for an omnipresent viewing audience, like the Butcher of
in A Pruner of Drug Action (p. 125) shows a decline of approximately 37% in the Brentwood.) Confidence is certainly not merely a psychological
mental-hospital population of the United States, from 540,000 to 340,000, be-tween convenience for the person possessing it, but the supreme virtue
1956 and 1970. of American culture, as is fitting. After all, confidence is
good for the economy, of unsurpassed excellence in military
(There seems to be some uncertainty as to how to count mental hospital adventures, an essential element of sports worship, - not to
patients. An article by Earl Ubell, in the February 11, 1996 issue of Parade magazine, mention handy for rapists.
gives 630,000 as the U.S. mental hospital population in 1960, while the figure in A The authors of the U.S. constitution never intended to limit
Primer of Ding Action mentioned above shows the 1960 population as 520,000. This is the second amendment right of citizens to bear arms to the
probably not a serious discrepancy for the purpose of the present discussion, as men- weapons technology available at that time. Every American has
tal-hospital populations were presumably counted by the same method for each year the constitutional right (which ought to be exercised) to possess
listed in Figure 7.1.) state-of-the-art tactical nuclear weapons. Nukes don't kill,
people do. The possible annihilation of American cities in
Robert characterized dopamine as "the significance chemical." However, domestic disputes is a small price to pay for our freedom.
drugs which act on the dopamine receptors in the brain, such as amphetamine and Rome didn't fall in a day. Americans should not criticize
cocaine, do not generally produce in users a sense of heiptened significance; rather, America, because America has freedom of speech. America is the
they relieve the chronic background of psychic pain which people live with without undisputed moral leader of the world, often with a commanding
noticing it. When this this pain is relieved, they experience a sense of euphoria. lead over that of many of her allies in the rates of functional
illiteracy, homicide, rape, homelessness, AIDS, and citizens
The drugs which do commonly produce a sense of heightened significance are lacking health insurance. Ideally, the middle class will
the psychedelics. (The word psychedelic means "mind manifesting.") Table 8.1 in A eventually be eliminated entirely or greatly reduced in size, and
Primer of Drug Action (p. 139) differentiates four classes of psychedelics, including the economic distance between the wealth-elite and the remainder
serotonin pscyedelics (LSD, DMT, and psilocybin), norephinephiin psychedelics (mes- vastly increased by winner-take-all free-marketism which is the
caline, MDMA ["ecstasy," not listed in A Primer because it was not available when source of all value and values. Darwin must supplant the
the book was written, although closely related substances such as MDA are listed]), communism of the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism, and Islam.
acyetylcholine psychedelks (atropine, scopalamine), and psychedelic anesthetics (e.g., The Sisyphean jihad known as the "war on drugs" and the
ketamine), for which the operant neurotransmitter receptor sites were unidentified casualties of this war serve as a ubiquitous and everlasting
as of the publication date of Julien's Primer. monument to our moral superiority. Consequently, there is no
drug problem in America and illegal drugs must never be
The first two categories include the drugs which are particularly noted for decriminalized.
created a heightened sense of the significance of thought and perception. In addition, If possible, in sharp contrast to present practices in
marijuana and hashish (usually not considered true psychedelics) also produce sensa- America, individuals who are chronically unemployed, individuals
tions of enhanced significance. with low cognitive ability, individuals who have histories which
manifest propensities to violence, especially if unmarried and/or
It is worth noting, in this connection, that chlorpromazine (commonly known drug and alcohol abusers, should be given significant financial
by the brand name Thorazine), mentioned in the quotation from Julien above, was incentives to have (preferably large numbers of) children for
known as early as the 1960's as an antidote for certain of the effects of LSD and was others to support and to keep the social service bureaucracies
used to "bring down" people who were undergoing frightening experiences (known and prison system vital. In the unimaginably unlikely case that
as "bad trips"). there were genetic factors in any of the preceding, such as low
cognitive ability or propensity to violent behavior, these
I experimented with LSD when I was younger. Once I had a trip during which individuals should be especially rewarded economically for
things began to seem entirely too real. I took some Thorazine. All the negative, bum- generating offspring. In the equally unlikely event that social
mer feelings continued, while the interesting, psychedelic perceptions, including the dysfunction increased following such enlightened practices, then
heightened sense of significance, went away. obviously the solution would be to give these individuals even
larger financial incentives for reproducing.

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NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 23
 Copyright(:)1996 Since pihenothiazines are effective in counteracting heightened significance, it
Richard W. May may be that Robert was experiencing an excess of serotonin instead of dopamine.

Tnchoare Divaoarionn (satire) Keeping one's bearings in the face of a greatly heightened experience of sig-
nificance is a function of understanding; certain Eastern spiritual disciplines produce
tremendously enhanced experiences, in which the interconnection of everything is
The people are only a symbol of the flag. And who are the perceived directly, without causing disorientation and burnout.
people? Zygotes, embryos, and even fetuses too, one supposes.
If only each fetus worldwide could be born waving a genetically- Robert wrote, "If Kevin has a history of calming and restoring to normal
engineered national flag (American?) ... What is needed is flag- severely psychotic people may he trumpet his success to the world?' I am not
care reform and universal flag insurance. Post-fetal humans, an optimistic about the prospects of severely psychotic people. I believe in devoting my
oxymoron, are obviously of no significance, lacking even the energies to those near the top of the heap rather than those at the bottom. If you
right to die, except, of course, for an Ideology. (Mere help someone who is already functioning well to function better, he will be in a much
precisely living post-fetal humans are without significance. better position to pass on the benefits to those on the next tier down than someone
Corpses or fragments of corpses generally equal or exceed in who is barely functioning.
importance even a lofty zygote.) The bizarre idea that
postpartum life in the physical world here and now has any value This is one aspect of the meaning of the passage below (Matt. 8:21-22):
ox significance is a despicable Jewish heresy. Zygotes are full
actual (rather than potential future) human beings until born, And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury
when as "post-fetals" they are completely free to die on park my father.
benches, but only slowly and without assistance, as good But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Christians.
It should be totally unacceptable to us as Americans in a Robert wrote:
free society that we all share the light and heat of a connive
sun, and all breathe the same collective mass of atmospheric Psychiatric illnesses can be tricky to form conclusions on. I subscribe to the rule
gases, the air. This condition parallels that of the European- of thirds. One third of the ill will recover without help. One third will recover with
style welfare-states, is as decadent as American Medicare help. One third will not recover. Possibly Kevin has observed the first third and has
(communism), and is forced upon us by our enemy, Nature, drawn unwarranted conclusions about the majority of patients.
depriving us of our freedom. (A free society would not tolerate
Medicare, and would contain no elderly people who were not also I assume we're talking about psychosis here, as three thirds of the general pop-
wealthy, i.e., virtuous.) The sun and the air must be privatized ulation is neurotic to one degree or another.
as soon as our technology makes this possible. One can fully
trust any private sector business or multinational corporation, Without quibbling about exact proportions, I agree with Robert's "rule of
such as the tobacco industry, but not any agency of government. thirds," except that I would say that one third will recover in spite of "help." It is this
Power corrupts, but only government power. So must the U.S. group that supports the illusion that "mental health professionals" generally do their
military be totally privatized immediately. Nature is, of "patients" more good than harm.
course, our enemy and we are completely separate from nature.
The ecological/environmental movement is treason, and hence, the Those that recover are usually suffering from short-term, acute psychosis. The
destruction of the natural environment is a positive goal of the chronically insane generally don't recover.
highest priority. Any alleged "negative" impact of environmental
destruction on post-fetal human health is in any case good for As one hospital attendant told me, "It used to be that you went to a mental hospital
the health-care industry, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, to stay." Now the middle third can be released anti live near-healthy, near-normal
and, of course, the funeral industry. (The free-market economy lives in the general community--just as long as they take their medication.
is, of course, the only source of all human values, except for
religious fundamentalisms. In order to understand the phenomenon There are people who are able to find a new equilibrium through the use of
of fundamentalism, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic, one must only psychiatric medication, then slowly taper off until they are drug-free. In some cases,
reflect upon the meaning of the term "fundament.") In any case this produces very good results. I am not opposed to the use of these drugs in every
good health may only prolong life in this world, be conducive to case. But many of those who continue on medication indefinitely are like zombies
sexual expression, and minimize suffering to a degree, and hence, walking amons us; life without highs and lows is not really living. Robert wrote that
may not be Christian. "some professionals claim that the great majority of mental patients are under-medi-
Drunk drivers should without exception be canonized, because cated"; it is apparent to me that most of them are over-medicated.
they epitomize the supreme American virtue, confidence.
Confidence is what counts, not competence certainly. Ronald Reagan was not an important factor in emptying the mental hospitals.
First of all, these were STATE hospitals. Second. Reagan only slowed the rate of

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 11

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 22
 growth of social spending, he didn't cut it. (This is one point where I see Kevin's left-
wing environment showing through.) way of a speeding train whether he's American, German, Chinese, or a rainforest
Emptying the state hospitals was a reasonable decision, except that the Pygmy--and so will a gorilla or an elephant.
community mental health centers that were to be built to replace them were in large
measure never built. Also the courts kept many ill persons on the streets in the same Dr. Frost continued:
way they keep many criminals on the streets.
In one of his short stories, Isaac Asimov intimates (with characteristic foresight) that
few, in the society of the future, will even be able to add and subtract ... Because
According to the Parade article mentioned above, "Since the 1960s, NIMH re- even the desk-top computer can perform the most complex calculations in just a
ports the number of Americans in mental institutions has fallen by 85 percent." [This fraction of a second, proficiency at arithmetic and even the understanding of mathe-
would make the current population approximately 100,000.] While the new psych- matical concepts are rapidly becoming superfluous abilities; to solve a quantitative
iatric medications clearly made it possible for many mental patients to live outside problem, all (excepting programmers and the most innovative theoretical scientists)
institutions, the need for mental hospital beds now exceeds the number available. can merely "push a button. Many critics of modern society, likewise, worry that the
computer will engender a general decline in the species' cognitive ability; they foresee
an illiterate, innumerate future generation which, like that portrayed by Isaac
I live in California. As Robert lives on the opposite coast, he may not be Asimov, is virtually incapable of analytical reasoning.
aware that Reagan was Governer of California before he became President and cut
the budget for state mental institutions aggressively. Many other states followed Cali- Although there is certainly a tendency for people to become dependent upon
fornia's lead. technological solutions to problems which formerly required thinking, but the scien-
tific/technical/hacker culture is not as innumerate as Dr. Frost may believe. What we
. My attitude toward the closing of the mental hospitals and the consequent appear to be heading toward was foreshadowed several decades ago in a chilling
presence of large numbers of the mentally ill on the streets of American cities is science fiction story by C.M. Kornbluth called "The Marching Morons," in which
distinctly right-wing In my opinion, the general population needs to be protected humanity had become divided into a small elite of technocrats and a huge mass of
from the aberrent behavior of both the criminal element and the mentally ill. people whose dysgenic breeding habits had reduced them to total intellectual incom-
petence.
Obviously, deranged people are not guilty of offenses against persons or
property to anywhere near the degree that criminals are, but their confusion and On the last page of her essay, Dr. Frost wrote:
negativity are contagious. This is a major factor in the degradation of the quality of The body of modern knowledge is enormous--too huge for one individual to master it
life in central business and residential districts of major metropolitan areas in the even in 5 lifetimes; continual advancement, especially in the technologies, assures
United States. that every man will always be "slightly ignorant" (even regarding the developments in
his own specialty) and that, inevitably, he will often need to consult references for an
explanation of new discoveries.
I am not without sympathy for people who are suffering from psychosis, but
they are simply not equipped to cope with life outside institutions and their presence While this is correct, as far as it goes, I, for one, am not willing to acquiesce to the
on the streets of the big cities is harmful both to themselves and to others. forces acting to direct modern man into one or another narrow specialty; I have
struggled to become a generalist and, to a limited extent, I have succeeded. Those
who wish to do the same may be interested in my Polymath Apprenticeship Program,
designed as a vehicle for those who wish to do so to become more well-rounded and
to "cover the bases" of the various obligations imposed by life more efficiently.

NOES'S Number 122 August 1996 page 12

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 21

 their childhood, they possessed such a memory and such alertness of mind as would Reply to Robert Dick's Response
now be considered remarkable and even phenomenal on the State of the Earth
They not only knew by heart innumerable and often very lengthy narratives and
poems, and sang from memory all their various melodies, but when improvising in
their own, so to say, subjective way, they hit upon the appropriate rhymes and Kevin Langdon
changes of rhythm for their verses with astounding rapidity. P.O. Box 795
At the present time men with such abilities are no longer to be found anywhere.
Even when I was young ibefore I9001, it was being said that they were beoaming
Berkeley, CA 94701
scarcer and scarcer. (510) 524-0345
I personally saw a number of these ashokhs who were considered famous in those 75061.3251@[Link]
days, and their faces were strongly impressed on my memory.
I happened to see them because my father used to take me as a child to the contests
where these poet asholclu, coming from various countries, such as Persia, Turkey, the
Caucasus and even parts of Turkestan, competed before a great throng of people in In a letter in Noesis #118, Robert Dick responded to a number of points in my
improvising and singing. "Reply to Robert Dick on the State of the Earth" in #115. Robert wrote:
This usually proceeded in the following way:
One of the participants in the contest, chosen by lot, would begin, in singing an
improvised melody, to put to his partner some question on a religious or philo- Kevin Langdon writes "It's strange that someone as intelligent as Robert has bought
sophical theme, or on the meaning and origin of some well-known legend, tradition, into the anti-intellectual positions and suspicion of science typical of the Christian
or belief, and the other would reply, also m song, and in his own improvised sub- right."
jective melody; and these improvised subjective melodies, moreover, had always to
correspond in their tonality to the previously produced consonances as well as to
Kevin's sentence quoted above implies that most intellectuals and most scien-
what is called by real musical science the 'ansapalnianly flowing echo'.
All this was sung in verse, chiefly in Turko-Tartar, which was then the accepted tists agree with each other. That is not true of inellectuals and in a sense it is not true
common language of the peoples of these localities, who spoke different dialects. of scientists. There is an awful lot of left-wing junk science around which masquer-
These contests would last weeks and sometimes even months, and would conclude ades as real science. The worst junk science used to be about nuclear weapons. Now
with the award of prizes and presents—provided by the audience and usually
consisting of cattle, rugs and so on—to those singers who, according to the general it is about ecology. I would not eve two cents for the junk science in an "Earth
verdict, had most distinguished themselves. Week" column in a Berkeley newspaper.

While these ashokhs were undoubtedly highly intelligent, their extraordinary powers There is no implication in what I wrote that scientists or intellectuals agree
of memory and concentration were due m large part, also, to the cultivation of a with one another. What makes the fundamentalists nervous is the epistomological
discipline of attention which formed the centerpiece of education in traditional commitment of scientists and intellectuals sympathetic to science to what can be
societies and has been lost in the present era, except among small circles of empirically verified, as opposed to revealed truth.
practitioners of traditional spiritual disciplines.
Robert labels scientific results he doesn't agree with as "junk science,"
Dr. Frost wrote: without offering specific rebuttals. Steve Newman's "Earth Week" column in the San
Francisco Chronicle simply reports the conclusions of papers presented at scientific
... an "intelligent" person (who, by definition, knows how to reason in the manner
encouraged by his society) should be able to recognize which of several possible
meetings or published in scientific journals. It's sort of like a Web site with links to
answers would most likely be derived by using conventional, culturally fostered other sites, not a primary source at all.
patterns of thinking.
Indirectly, such tests also measure "adaptability." Just as, in debate, the most per- For example, a journal devoted an issue to pesticides. A real scientist wrote an
suasive (and winning) argument is tailored to appeal to "common sense" and is built article for it with the following obvious assertion: When people breed vegetables to
upon widely accepted ("sane") fundamental premises, replies to test questions must
be made to conform with the expectations (and cognitive style) of one's culture. be pest-resistant, what they are really doing is making those vegetables secrete
natural pesticides, i.e., poisons. Needless to say, the journal refusal to print his
There is some truth to Dr. Frost's principal point in this passage. An essential article, because it went against the prevailing pseudo-science orthodoxy.
element in intelligence as measured by I.Q. tests is determining what is intended and
expected by the test author. But there is a big difference between the possession of This is not the only type of pest-resistance. For example, a plant can be bred
the common sense to recognize that one is expected to take into account obvious to contain a lower proportion of the nutrients which appeal to a particular pest. But a
facts, such as that the human population is approximately 50% male and 50% female journal editor somewhere must have been willing to print an article containing this
or that a game show host won t do anything that would ruin the game, and knowledge theory, because I have read about it before. Also, what is poisonous to an insect is
of specialized subject matter. One can be too "clever," fail to take such information not necessarily poisonous to a man.
into account, and lower one's score on a test by elaborate and tortured reasoning.
Incidentally, I read somewhere that some scientist said that yes, some parts of hte
As Dr. Frost pointed out," 'successful' (acceptable) behavior invariably conforms to earth are warming, but other parts are cooling.
the demands of one's environment," but it does not follow from this that such
demands are arbitrary or culturally determined. An intelligent man will get out of the Well, if some scientist said it ... (Was that a junk scientist?)

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 13

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 20
 old, new theories and arguments being grasped only when the starting premises are
fully comprehended.

While it is true that to score well on any I.Q. test a certain mastery of basic skills is
The U.S. government has often dragged its feet on environmental issues like required, the knowledge required to solve problems on tests of fluid g, like the LA1T,
acid rain and protection of old-growth forests, but the Clinton administration has is of a very elementary character; native speakers of English above the 99th
recently taken a strong line on global warming. percentile, the population for which the LA1T was designed, face a level playing field
m this regard, as they are all in possession of the command of the language and of
The following paragraphs are from "U.S. Says Pact Crucial to Curb Warm- elementary mathematics needed to solve the problems on the test.
ing," by Elliot Diringer, in the July 18 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle:
What differentiates between high and low scorers is not different degrees of
Addressing a high-level negotiating session in Geneva, Undersecretary of State knowledge of key subject matter areas but different degrees of ability to develop and
Timothy Wirth urged governments to work toward the adoption of "realistic, critique lines of reasoning. While this ability depends, to a certain degree, on
verifiable and binding" emissions targets by the end of 1997. practice, it does not depend on the particular subject matter which has been the
focus of a testee's past reasoning activity.
Although skeptics remain, there is broad consensus among atmospheric scien-
tists that the build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, largely as a
Further on, Dr. Frost wrote:
result of fossil fuel consumption, is beginning to nudge up temperatures worldwide The "classical" education highly valued by the erstwhile British aristocracy
and threatens widespread climatic disruption in coming decades. emphasized linguistic skills almost exclusively; youths were taught predominantly
literature, philosophy, ancient Greek and history. In a more technologically oriented
"Continued use of nonbinding targets that are not met makes a mockery of the age, some of the most respected scholars of that time might have seemed profoundly
inept or "one sided"; conversely, many modem scientists--esteemeed for their acute
treaty process," Wirth told the Geneva gathering. mathematical and spatial reasoning--might have been judged "ill fit for higher
learning" or "unintelligent" by an educational system which focused entirely on
For another view of the seriousness of global warming, see "Polar Ice Cap literary accomplishment.
Will Perish, Report Says," by Geoffrey Lean of the London Independent, published in
the April 7, 1996 edition of the San Francisco Examiner, this article is reprinted in It is true that British "classical" education is one-sided: it emphasizes knowledge of
this issue of Noesit by permission of the London Independent. Western culture to the exclusion of other branches of human civilization, rote
memorization of detail, and a kind of "cleverness" that frequently fails to see the
Robert wrote: forest for the trees. Scientific/technical education is often one-sided as well, leading
to narrow specialization, even, in many cases, to the exclusion of the acquisition Of
And oh yes, Kevin says he is barely part of the middle class, but he Likes wastelands. normal social skills, as in the stereotypical nerd with thick glasses and assorted pens
Who is he kidding? I find it extremeely doubtful that taking the entire population of and pencils in a pocket protector.
the earth Kevin is below the 90th or even 95th percentile in wealth. And, oh yes, Many purported "intelligence tests" share the biases of the British classical model of
people like Kevin who believe in "overpopulation" always think the excess popula- learning; fewer are biased in the "technical" direction, though tests of this type exist
tion is SOMEBODY ELSE. Not a very noble thought. as well, e.g., Chris Cole's preliminary "short form" test published in Noesis, the
journal of the Mega Society.
Who said anything about "wastelands"? I was talking about rainforests,
marshes, and other wild places. Millions of people in the U.S. love these natural In another passage, Dr. Frost wrote:
wonders--and the populations of many of the world's poorest nations have a deeper
appreciation of nature than the U.S. population. The ability to "rote memorize"--vital to the retention of knowledge in a pre-literate
era and important in the learning of complicated ecclesiastical rituals in the medieval
"People like Robert" don't understand that the world's resources are limited. period--has been de-emphasized; moreover, the focus on technologically useful forms
of thinking has reduced the value placed on linguistic aptitude in isolation.
We have to put the brakes on sooner or later, and it will be a lot more comfortable
for all of us if we do it soon. The memory capacity and attentiveness of people in traditional societies was
enormous in comparison with the distracted and half-aware state of the vast majority
As a matter of fact, the excess population is "somebody else." The results of of people in modern technological civilization. Consider the following passage from
the 1980 Four Sigma membership survey showed that 248 respondents had an aver- Meetings with Remarkable Men, by G.I. Gurcijieff:
age of only .85 children. The average age of these respondents was approximately
34.5. Even if we assume that these Four Sigma members had become parents of only Ashokh was the name given everywhere in Asia and the Balkan peninsula to the local
half the children they would eventually have at the time of the survey, this is still well bards, who composed, recited or sang poems, songs, legends, folk-tales, and all sorts
below replacement level. The population of geniuses is not increasing exponentially, of stories.
In spite of the fact that these people of the past who devoted themselves to such a
but the population of dummies is. This is neither noble nor ignoble, just factual. career were in most cases illiterate, having not even been to an elementary school in

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 19

NOESIS Number 122 August 1998 page 14
 AAA ..)u.n.i.a..Aprit I A-11

To Become a Generalist

Kevin Langdon
P.O. Box 795
Polar ice cap will
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] perish, report says
Reprinted from Gift of Fire #60, June 1993
By Geoffrey Lean this would be enough to melt the
I. COCON POCK/CENT now-permanent ice. "We would see
In Gift of Fire #598, there was a long essay by Dr. C.L. Frost (the author's name was the sea ice cap going completely in
LONDON — The North Pole is the summer, but remaining in the
incorrectly listed as "C.F. Frost"), entitled "The Changing Face of Intelligence," in
which Dr. Frost addressed the question of the meaning of intelligence in changing melting, top American and British winter," he said.
cultural contexts. scientists have discovered. They Aagaard's research results from
predict that due to global warming, a month-long, 2,300-mile voyage
The debate between Spearman, who argued for a general intellectual ability factor the year-round polar ice cap will through the polar ice from Alaska
underlying special abilities, and Thomdike, who contended that only specialized disappear entirely in the next cen- to Iceland in 1994 by two icebreak-
aptitudes exist, mentioned in Dr. Frost's essay, has long been resolved in favor of tury. ers, the U.S. ship Polar Sea and
Spearman; factor analysis of psychological test data reveals a single factor, called g by New research from the first-ev- Canada's Louis St-Laurent.. When
psychometricians, which accounts for at least 70 percent of the variance in er sea voyage across the North Pole the ships reached the North Pole
intelligence test scores, even on highly dissimilar instruments (for an in-depth — made by icebreakers — shows in August of that year, they unex-
examination of this subject, see Bias in Mental Testing, by Dr. Arthur R. Jensen). that a layer of water under the ice pectedly met a Russian icebreaker
is warming up astonishingly quick- carrying 75 schoolchildren who
On the second page of her essay, Dr. Frost listed two "basic premises" on which her ly. The report, by Professor Knut had won a competition. The three
argument was based: Aagaard of the University of ships completed the voyage togeth-
Washington in Seattle, will be pub- er.
1) Innate intelligence is unmeasurable; only 01/Crii manifested ability can be evalu- lished later this year.
ated—making intelligence tests, in many ways, akin to achievement tests. Measurements taken on the
2) The definition of "intelligence," or of what component abilities should be most Scientists suspect that the rapid
emphasized on an exam, is socially determined and thus may change in accordance journey revealed a large overall
rise in temperature is connected to
with the needs of an era or culture. a disruption of currents in the warming of a layer of water about
North Atlantic. The disruption, 200 meters below the ice cap. Its
The first point appears to be simple common sense--but it's not true. Recent studies temperature appears to have
have shown that psychometric 1.0. is highly correlated with measures of perception which follows the failure of the
"Odden Feature" in the Greenland jumped by 1 degree Centigrade in
and reaction time, alpha brain wave frequency, and "evoked potentials" (involuntary just five years.
brain activity in response to stimuli such as light flashes). For details, see "A Sea for the third year in a row,
Biological Basis for IQ," by Sharon Begley, et aL (Newsweek, Oct. 18, 1982) and threatens to affect the Gulf Other research shows that water
"EEG Correlates of Psychometric Intelligence," by Paul Elliott (Telicom, October Stream. The "Odden Feature" oc- flowing up the Norwegian coast in-
1980). Of course, many poorly-designed tests of "crystallized intelligence" are highly curs when water is sucked down to the Arctic — easily tracked be-
loaded on knowledge of particular specialized subject matter; these tests are, indeed, from the surface to the sea bed, cause it is contaminated with ra-
measures more of a certain type of "achievement" than of neural efficiency or feeding a vast deep current that dioactive pollution — also has
reasoning ability. links all of the world's oceans. grown warmer recently. Mean-
Computer modeling of the likely while, the amount of ice drifting
In order to reply to the second point, I call attention to the following passages in Dr.
Frost's essay: progress of global warming at Brit- down from the Arctic to the Green-
ain's Hadley Center for Climate land Sea has fallen by nearly 40
... most IQ tests examine primarily verbal and numerical reasoning. Thus, to score Research and Prediction forecasts percent.
highly, a man must perform well at tasks deemed important by his particular society. that the Arctic will warm up faster Wadhams, who works at the
Performance depends upon his previous mastery of vocabulary and various spatial and
numerical concepts; he must demonstrate proficiency in skills emphasized by the than anywhere else on earth — by Scott Polar Research Institute in
current educational system and by prevailing custom. between 6 and 8 degrees Centi- Cambridge, England, attributes
grade over the next century. the increasing temperatures to
. . . what we have already learned . . . affects our capacity for future learning;
knowledge is often cumulative—new facts being understood only in the context of the Peter Wadhams, coordinator of global warming and says the higher
the European Commission's Sub- temperatures are likely to speed up
Polar Ocean Program, says that the melting of the ice.

NOESIS Number 122 August 1998 page 18

NOESIS Number 122 August 1998 page 15

11 I
 Reply to Paul Maxim's Tiresome and Repetitious has been evidence of fraud, bias, or the exercise of "insider's privilege," new certi-
Attacks on the Norming of the LAIT fication of qualifications should be solicited.
in a Letter to Jeff Ward and an Open Letter
Addressed to Me Published in Noesis #119 Funny, this is just what Mr. Maxim objects to so vehemently in his own case.
All he'd have to do to get into Prometheus and Mega is to take the Mesa Test, or
Kevin Langdon another instrument the societies accept (several other high-range tests will need to
P.O. Box 795 be scrutinized soon). Why does he object to this? And why is he demanding that
Berkeley, CA 94701 members of the Mega Society dance to the tune of a nonmember?
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] I would also like to point out that the fraud which Mr. Maxim alleges is not
even plausible, let alone proven.

Paul Maxim's letters in #119 are just as malicious and illogical as his previous In his "Open Letter," Mr. Maxim wrote:
outpourings.
I computed the mean LAIT IQ for these 284 qualifiers [for Four Sigma, out of
Mr. Maxim wrote: 20,000 LAIT testeesh and it came out to 166.7, representing about 1 in 70,000 as
compared with the general population. Then I also computed the mean IQ that the
The dam is beginning to crack, and the house of cards is starting to crumble! entire 20,000-testee sample would have had to have (assuming a normal distribution),
in order for its top 284 scorers to achieve a mean IQ of 166.7. .. this came out to
The damn house isn't made of cards or practical pig built his house out precisely 3 sigma, equivalent to the nominal entry level for ISPE, Triple Nine, and
bricks, and all Mr. Maxim's huffing and puffing will get him nowhere. OATH.

Kevin Langdon recently revealed to Bob Kopp (VIDYA Editor) that the First of all, Mr. Maxim's math is off by approximately a factor of two. But,
norming of one of his tests was 5 points too high. Here's the way Bob phrased it to more importantly, as I have pointed out in numerous replies to Mr. Maxim in this
me: "He admits that one of his normings was about five points too high, adding that journal and elsewhere, people near the general population mean are not likely to
you already know about it." Since Langdon's LAIT was the only one of his tests I take very difficult high-range I.Q. tests, or to submit them for scoring if they know
have ever analyzed, and since this remark was directed at a three-sigma society they haven't been able to solve most of the problems. This self-selection factor
member, what Langdon was saying (in effect) is that the LAIT IQ threshold for operates differentially all the way up the scale, and for this reason it's nonsense to
admission to Triple Nine should be raised from 150 to 155. It also implies the expect that there should be the same proportion of high scorers in the population of
necessity for a corresponding seven-point increase in the LAIT's 4-sigma threshold, those who submit answer sheets to these tests as one would find in the general pop-
from 164 to 171, which is pretty much what I've been recommending over the past ulation.
few months. And, in addition, it would imply raising the Mega threshold for LAIT by
eight points, from 176 to 184. Mr. Maxim continued to fill the rest of the page with ravings based on the
same false premise. I will not bore Noesis readers with further responses to his
As I pointed out in my replies, in ##I15 and 117, to Paul Maxim's previous remarks.
criticisms of the norming of the LAIT, it was the first naming of the LAIT on which
I.Q. scores were five points too high at the four-sigma level (not the three-sigma
I wonder if anyone else is getting just a little fired of this pathetic and vin-
level)--relative to the second norming, with a substantially larger sample. The over-
whelming majority (98%) of LAIT testees received second-norming score reports, dictive individual insulting and vilifying our members in the pages of Noesis.
and those who had received first-norming reports also received second-norming re-
ports.
[Editors comment: Why did I spend time analyzing Mega vs. LAIT in the July
Instead of offering counterarguments to my remarks, Mr. Maxim has simply
issue? Kevin, does that five-point adjustment (probably from the Reagan
repeated his inaccurate and unsubstantiated accusations. He's always screaming
about anything which he takes to be unfair treatment, but he doesn't give a damn administration) take care of the LAIT vs. Mega thing? I've gotta quit reading the
about fairness to anyone else. There's a word for this: Mr. Maxim is a hypocrite. • material submitted for publication.]

Not content with assaulting my reputation with his baseless accusations, Mr.
Maxim insinuated in his letter to Jeff Ward that Ron Hoeflin and Robert Dick are
not really qualified for the Mega Society; he has also questioned the credentials of
Marilyn vos Savant. Who's next? Here's Mr. Maxim's answer:

The Society should establish a "blue ribbon" commission, and subject all its members
and applicants to recertification, so as to insure fairness and accuracy. Where there

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 16 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 17
 Reply to Paul Maxim's Tiresome and Repetitious has been evidence of fraud, bias, or the exercise of "insider's privilege," new certi-
Attacks on the Norming of the LAIT fication of qualifications should be solicited.
in a Letter to Jeff Ward and an Open Letter
Addressed to Me Published in Noesis #119 Funny, this is just what Mr. Maxim objects to so vehemently in his own case.
All he'd have to do to get into Prometheus and Mega is to take the Mesa Test, or
Kevin Langdon another instrument the societies accept (several other high-range tests will need to
P.O. Box 795 be scrutinized soon). Why does he object to this? And why is he demanding that
Berkeley, CA 94701 members of the Mega Society dance to the tune of a nonmember?
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] I would also like to point out that the fraud which Mr. Maxim alleges is not
even plausible, let alone proven.

Paul Maxim's letters in #119 are just as malicious and illogical as his previous In his "Open Letter," Mr. Maxim wrote:
outpourings.
I computed the mean LAIT IQ for these 284 qualifiers [for Four Sigma, out of
Mr. Maxim wrote: 20,000 LAIT testeesh and it came out to 166.7, representing about 1 in 70,000 as
compared with the general population. Then I also computed the mean IQ that the
The dam is beginning to crack, and the house of cards is starting to crumble! entire 20,000-testee sample would have had to have (assuming a normal distribution),
in order for its top 284 scorers to achieve a mean IQ of 166.7. .. this came out to
The damn house isn't made of cards or practical pig built his house out precisely 3 sigma, equivalent to the nominal entry level for ISPE, Triple Nine, and
bricks, and all Mr. Maxim's huffing and puffing will get him nowhere. OATH.

Kevin Langdon recently revealed to Bob Kopp (VIDYA Editor) that the First of all, Mr. Maxim's math is off by approximately a factor of two. But,
norming of one of his tests was 5 points too high. Here's the way Bob phrased it to more importantly, as I have pointed out in numerous replies to Mr. Maxim in this
me: "He admits that one of his normings was about five points too high, adding that journal and elsewhere, people near the general population mean are not likely to
you already know about it." Since Langdon's LAIT was the only one of his tests I take very difficult high-range I.Q. tests, or to submit them for scoring if they know
have ever analyzed, and since this remark was directed at a three-sigma society they haven't been able to solve most of the problems. This self-selection factor
member, what Langdon was saying (in effect) is that the LAIT IQ threshold for operates differentially all the way up the scale, and for this reason it's nonsense to
admission to Triple Nine should be raised from 150 to 155. It also implies the expect that there should be the same proportion of high scorers in the population of
necessity for a corresponding seven-point increase in the LAIT's 4-sigma threshold, those who submit answer sheets to these tests as one would find in the general pop-
from 164 to 171, which is pretty much what I've been recommending over the past ulation.
few months. And, in addition, it would imply raising the Mega threshold for LAIT by
eight points, from 176 to 184. Mr. Maxim continued to fill the rest of the page with ravings based on the
same false premise. I will not bore Noesis readers with further responses to his
As I pointed out in my replies, in ##I15 and 117, to Paul Maxim's previous remarks.
criticisms of the norming of the LAIT, it was the first naming of the LAIT on which
I.Q. scores were five points too high at the four-sigma level (not the three-sigma
I wonder if anyone else is getting just a little fired of this pathetic and vin-
level)--relative to the second norming, with a substantially larger sample. The over-
whelming majority (98%) of LAIT testees received second-norming score reports, dictive individual insulting and vilifying our members in the pages of Noesis.
and those who had received first-norming reports also received second-norming re-
ports.
[Editors comment: Why did I spend time analyzing Mega vs. LAIT in the July
Instead of offering counterarguments to my remarks, Mr. Maxim has simply
issue? Kevin, does that five-point adjustment (probably from the Reagan
repeated his inaccurate and unsubstantiated accusations. He's always screaming
about anything which he takes to be unfair treatment, but he doesn't give a damn administration) take care of the LAIT vs. Mega thing? I've gotta quit reading the
about fairness to anyone else. There's a word for this: Mr. Maxim is a hypocrite. • material submitted for publication.]

Not content with assaulting my reputation with his baseless accusations, Mr.
Maxim insinuated in his letter to Jeff Ward that Ron Hoeflin and Robert Dick are
not really qualified for the Mega Society; he has also questioned the credentials of
Marilyn vos Savant. Who's next? Here's Mr. Maxim's answer:

The Society should establish a "blue ribbon" commission, and subject all its members
and applicants to recertification, so as to insure fairness and accuracy. Where there

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 16 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 17
 AAA ..)u.n.i.a..Aprit I A-11

To Become a Generalist

Kevin Langdon
P.O. Box 795
Polar ice cap will
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] perish, report says
Reprinted from Gift of Fire #60, June 1993
By Geoffrey Lean this would be enough to melt the
I. COCON POCK/CENT now-permanent ice. "We would see
In Gift of Fire #598, there was a long essay by Dr. C.L. Frost (the author's name was the sea ice cap going completely in
LONDON — The North Pole is the summer, but remaining in the
incorrectly listed as "C.F. Frost"), entitled "The Changing Face of Intelligence," in
which Dr. Frost addressed the question of the meaning of intelligence in changing melting, top American and British winter," he said.
cultural contexts. scientists have discovered. They Aagaard's research results from
predict that due to global warming, a month-long, 2,300-mile voyage
The debate between Spearman, who argued for a general intellectual ability factor the year-round polar ice cap will through the polar ice from Alaska
underlying special abilities, and Thomdike, who contended that only specialized disappear entirely in the next cen- to Iceland in 1994 by two icebreak-
aptitudes exist, mentioned in Dr. Frost's essay, has long been resolved in favor of tury. ers, the U.S. ship Polar Sea and
Spearman; factor analysis of psychological test data reveals a single factor, called g by New research from the first-ev- Canada's Louis St-Laurent.. When
psychometricians, which accounts for at least 70 percent of the variance in er sea voyage across the North Pole the ships reached the North Pole
intelligence test scores, even on highly dissimilar instruments (for an in-depth — made by icebreakers — shows in August of that year, they unex-
examination of this subject, see Bias in Mental Testing, by Dr. Arthur R. Jensen). that a layer of water under the ice pectedly met a Russian icebreaker
is warming up astonishingly quick- carrying 75 schoolchildren who
On the second page of her essay, Dr. Frost listed two "basic premises" on which her ly. The report, by Professor Knut had won a competition. The three
argument was based: Aagaard of the University of ships completed the voyage togeth-
Washington in Seattle, will be pub- er.
1) Innate intelligence is unmeasurable; only 01/Crii manifested ability can be evalu- lished later this year.
ated—making intelligence tests, in many ways, akin to achievement tests. Measurements taken on the
2) The definition of "intelligence," or of what component abilities should be most Scientists suspect that the rapid
emphasized on an exam, is socially determined and thus may change in accordance journey revealed a large overall
rise in temperature is connected to
with the needs of an era or culture. a disruption of currents in the warming of a layer of water about
North Atlantic. The disruption, 200 meters below the ice cap. Its
The first point appears to be simple common sense--but it's not true. Recent studies temperature appears to have
have shown that psychometric 1.0. is highly correlated with measures of perception which follows the failure of the
"Odden Feature" in the Greenland jumped by 1 degree Centigrade in
and reaction time, alpha brain wave frequency, and "evoked potentials" (involuntary just five years.
brain activity in response to stimuli such as light flashes). For details, see "A Sea for the third year in a row,
Biological Basis for IQ," by Sharon Begley, et aL (Newsweek, Oct. 18, 1982) and threatens to affect the Gulf Other research shows that water
"EEG Correlates of Psychometric Intelligence," by Paul Elliott (Telicom, October Stream. The "Odden Feature" oc- flowing up the Norwegian coast in-
1980). Of course, many poorly-designed tests of "crystallized intelligence" are highly curs when water is sucked down to the Arctic — easily tracked be-
loaded on knowledge of particular specialized subject matter; these tests are, indeed, from the surface to the sea bed, cause it is contaminated with ra-
measures more of a certain type of "achievement" than of neural efficiency or feeding a vast deep current that dioactive pollution — also has
reasoning ability. links all of the world's oceans. grown warmer recently. Mean-
Computer modeling of the likely while, the amount of ice drifting
In order to reply to the second point, I call attention to the following passages in Dr.
Frost's essay: progress of global warming at Brit- down from the Arctic to the Green-
ain's Hadley Center for Climate land Sea has fallen by nearly 40
... most IQ tests examine primarily verbal and numerical reasoning. Thus, to score Research and Prediction forecasts percent.
highly, a man must perform well at tasks deemed important by his particular society. that the Arctic will warm up faster Wadhams, who works at the
Performance depends upon his previous mastery of vocabulary and various spatial and
numerical concepts; he must demonstrate proficiency in skills emphasized by the than anywhere else on earth — by Scott Polar Research Institute in
current educational system and by prevailing custom. between 6 and 8 degrees Centi- Cambridge, England, attributes
grade over the next century. the increasing temperatures to
. . . what we have already learned . . . affects our capacity for future learning;
knowledge is often cumulative—new facts being understood only in the context of the Peter Wadhams, coordinator of global warming and says the higher
the European Commission's Sub- temperatures are likely to speed up
Polar Ocean Program, says that the melting of the ice.

NOESIS Number 122 August 1998 page 18

NOESIS Number 122 August 1998 page 15

11 I
 old, new theories and arguments being grasped only when the starting premises are
fully comprehended.

While it is true that to score well on any I.Q. test a certain mastery of basic skills is
The U.S. government has often dragged its feet on environmental issues like required, the knowledge required to solve problems on tests of fluid g, like the LA1T,
acid rain and protection of old-growth forests, but the Clinton administration has is of a very elementary character; native speakers of English above the 99th
recently taken a strong line on global warming. percentile, the population for which the LA1T was designed, face a level playing field
m this regard, as they are all in possession of the command of the language and of
The following paragraphs are from "U.S. Says Pact Crucial to Curb Warm- elementary mathematics needed to solve the problems on the test.
ing," by Elliot Diringer, in the July 18 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle:
What differentiates between high and low scorers is not different degrees of
Addressing a high-level negotiating session in Geneva, Undersecretary of State knowledge of key subject matter areas but different degrees of ability to develop and
Timothy Wirth urged governments to work toward the adoption of "realistic, critique lines of reasoning. While this ability depends, to a certain degree, on
verifiable and binding" emissions targets by the end of 1997. practice, it does not depend on the particular subject matter which has been the
focus of a testee's past reasoning activity.
Although skeptics remain, there is broad consensus among atmospheric scien-
tists that the build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, largely as a
Further on, Dr. Frost wrote:
result of fossil fuel consumption, is beginning to nudge up temperatures worldwide The "classical" education highly valued by the erstwhile British aristocracy
and threatens widespread climatic disruption in coming decades. emphasized linguistic skills almost exclusively; youths were taught predominantly
literature, philosophy, ancient Greek and history. In a more technologically oriented
"Continued use of nonbinding targets that are not met makes a mockery of the age, some of the most respected scholars of that time might have seemed profoundly
inept or "one sided"; conversely, many modem scientists--esteemeed for their acute
treaty process," Wirth told the Geneva gathering. mathematical and spatial reasoning--might have been judged "ill fit for higher
learning" or "unintelligent" by an educational system which focused entirely on
For another view of the seriousness of global warming, see "Polar Ice Cap literary accomplishment.
Will Perish, Report Says," by Geoffrey Lean of the London Independent, published in
the April 7, 1996 edition of the San Francisco Examiner, this article is reprinted in It is true that British "classical" education is one-sided: it emphasizes knowledge of
this issue of Noesit by permission of the London Independent. Western culture to the exclusion of other branches of human civilization, rote
memorization of detail, and a kind of "cleverness" that frequently fails to see the
Robert wrote: forest for the trees. Scientific/technical education is often one-sided as well, leading
to narrow specialization, even, in many cases, to the exclusion of the acquisition Of
And oh yes, Kevin says he is barely part of the middle class, but he Likes wastelands. normal social skills, as in the stereotypical nerd with thick glasses and assorted pens
Who is he kidding? I find it extremeely doubtful that taking the entire population of and pencils in a pocket protector.
the earth Kevin is below the 90th or even 95th percentile in wealth. And, oh yes, Many purported "intelligence tests" share the biases of the British classical model of
people like Kevin who believe in "overpopulation" always think the excess popula- learning; fewer are biased in the "technical" direction, though tests of this type exist
tion is SOMEBODY ELSE. Not a very noble thought. as well, e.g., Chris Cole's preliminary "short form" test published in Noesis, the
journal of the Mega Society.
Who said anything about "wastelands"? I was talking about rainforests,
marshes, and other wild places. Millions of people in the U.S. love these natural In another passage, Dr. Frost wrote:
wonders--and the populations of many of the world's poorest nations have a deeper
appreciation of nature than the U.S. population. The ability to "rote memorize"--vital to the retention of knowledge in a pre-literate
era and important in the learning of complicated ecclesiastical rituals in the medieval
"People like Robert" don't understand that the world's resources are limited. period--has been de-emphasized; moreover, the focus on technologically useful forms
of thinking has reduced the value placed on linguistic aptitude in isolation.
We have to put the brakes on sooner or later, and it will be a lot more comfortable
for all of us if we do it soon. The memory capacity and attentiveness of people in traditional societies was
enormous in comparison with the distracted and half-aware state of the vast majority
As a matter of fact, the excess population is "somebody else." The results of of people in modern technological civilization. Consider the following passage from
the 1980 Four Sigma membership survey showed that 248 respondents had an aver- Meetings with Remarkable Men, by G.I. Gurcijieff:
age of only .85 children. The average age of these respondents was approximately
34.5. Even if we assume that these Four Sigma members had become parents of only Ashokh was the name given everywhere in Asia and the Balkan peninsula to the local
half the children they would eventually have at the time of the survey, this is still well bards, who composed, recited or sang poems, songs, legends, folk-tales, and all sorts
below replacement level. The population of geniuses is not increasing exponentially, of stories.
In spite of the fact that these people of the past who devoted themselves to such a
but the population of dummies is. This is neither noble nor ignoble, just factual. career were in most cases illiterate, having not even been to an elementary school in

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 19

NOESIS Number 122 August 1998 page 14
 their childhood, they possessed such a memory and such alertness of mind as would Reply to Robert Dick's Response
now be considered remarkable and even phenomenal on the State of the Earth
They not only knew by heart innumerable and often very lengthy narratives and
poems, and sang from memory all their various melodies, but when improvising in
their own, so to say, subjective way, they hit upon the appropriate rhymes and Kevin Langdon
changes of rhythm for their verses with astounding rapidity. P.O. Box 795
At the present time men with such abilities are no longer to be found anywhere.
Even when I was young ibefore I9001, it was being said that they were beoaming
Berkeley, CA 94701
scarcer and scarcer. (510) 524-0345
I personally saw a number of these ashokhs who were considered famous in those 75061.3251@[Link]
days, and their faces were strongly impressed on my memory.
I happened to see them because my father used to take me as a child to the contests
where these poet asholclu, coming from various countries, such as Persia, Turkey, the
Caucasus and even parts of Turkestan, competed before a great throng of people in In a letter in Noesis #118, Robert Dick responded to a number of points in my
improvising and singing. "Reply to Robert Dick on the State of the Earth" in #115. Robert wrote:
This usually proceeded in the following way:
One of the participants in the contest, chosen by lot, would begin, in singing an
improvised melody, to put to his partner some question on a religious or philo- Kevin Langdon writes "It's strange that someone as intelligent as Robert has bought
sophical theme, or on the meaning and origin of some well-known legend, tradition, into the anti-intellectual positions and suspicion of science typical of the Christian
or belief, and the other would reply, also m song, and in his own improvised sub- right."
jective melody; and these improvised subjective melodies, moreover, had always to
correspond in their tonality to the previously produced consonances as well as to
Kevin's sentence quoted above implies that most intellectuals and most scien-
what is called by real musical science the 'ansapalnianly flowing echo'.
All this was sung in verse, chiefly in Turko-Tartar, which was then the accepted tists agree with each other. That is not true of inellectuals and in a sense it is not true
common language of the peoples of these localities, who spoke different dialects. of scientists. There is an awful lot of left-wing junk science around which masquer-
These contests would last weeks and sometimes even months, and would conclude ades as real science. The worst junk science used to be about nuclear weapons. Now
with the award of prizes and presents—provided by the audience and usually
consisting of cattle, rugs and so on—to those singers who, according to the general it is about ecology. I would not eve two cents for the junk science in an "Earth
verdict, had most distinguished themselves. Week" column in a Berkeley newspaper.

While these ashokhs were undoubtedly highly intelligent, their extraordinary powers There is no implication in what I wrote that scientists or intellectuals agree
of memory and concentration were due m large part, also, to the cultivation of a with one another. What makes the fundamentalists nervous is the epistomological
discipline of attention which formed the centerpiece of education in traditional commitment of scientists and intellectuals sympathetic to science to what can be
societies and has been lost in the present era, except among small circles of empirically verified, as opposed to revealed truth.
practitioners of traditional spiritual disciplines.
Robert labels scientific results he doesn't agree with as "junk science,"
Dr. Frost wrote: without offering specific rebuttals. Steve Newman's "Earth Week" column in the San
Francisco Chronicle simply reports the conclusions of papers presented at scientific
... an "intelligent" person (who, by definition, knows how to reason in the manner
encouraged by his society) should be able to recognize which of several possible
meetings or published in scientific journals. It's sort of like a Web site with links to
answers would most likely be derived by using conventional, culturally fostered other sites, not a primary source at all.
patterns of thinking.
Indirectly, such tests also measure "adaptability." Just as, in debate, the most per- For example, a journal devoted an issue to pesticides. A real scientist wrote an
suasive (and winning) argument is tailored to appeal to "common sense" and is built article for it with the following obvious assertion: When people breed vegetables to
upon widely accepted ("sane") fundamental premises, replies to test questions must
be made to conform with the expectations (and cognitive style) of one's culture. be pest-resistant, what they are really doing is making those vegetables secrete
natural pesticides, i.e., poisons. Needless to say, the journal refusal to print his
There is some truth to Dr. Frost's principal point in this passage. An essential article, because it went against the prevailing pseudo-science orthodoxy.
element in intelligence as measured by I.Q. tests is determining what is intended and
expected by the test author. But there is a big difference between the possession of This is not the only type of pest-resistance. For example, a plant can be bred
the common sense to recognize that one is expected to take into account obvious to contain a lower proportion of the nutrients which appeal to a particular pest. But a
facts, such as that the human population is approximately 50% male and 50% female journal editor somewhere must have been willing to print an article containing this
or that a game show host won t do anything that would ruin the game, and knowledge theory, because I have read about it before. Also, what is poisonous to an insect is
of specialized subject matter. One can be too "clever," fail to take such information not necessarily poisonous to a man.
into account, and lower one's score on a test by elaborate and tortured reasoning.
Incidentally, I read somewhere that some scientist said that yes, some parts of hte
As Dr. Frost pointed out," 'successful' (acceptable) behavior invariably conforms to earth are warming, but other parts are cooling.
the demands of one's environment," but it does not follow from this that such
demands are arbitrary or culturally determined. An intelligent man will get out of the Well, if some scientist said it ... (Was that a junk scientist?)

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 growth of social spending, he didn't cut it. (This is one point where I see Kevin's left-
wing environment showing through.) way of a speeding train whether he's American, German, Chinese, or a rainforest
Emptying the state hospitals was a reasonable decision, except that the Pygmy--and so will a gorilla or an elephant.
community mental health centers that were to be built to replace them were in large
measure never built. Also the courts kept many ill persons on the streets in the same Dr. Frost continued:
way they keep many criminals on the streets.
In one of his short stories, Isaac Asimov intimates (with characteristic foresight) that
few, in the society of the future, will even be able to add and subtract ... Because
According to the Parade article mentioned above, "Since the 1960s, NIMH re- even the desk-top computer can perform the most complex calculations in just a
ports the number of Americans in mental institutions has fallen by 85 percent." [This fraction of a second, proficiency at arithmetic and even the understanding of mathe-
would make the current population approximately 100,000.] While the new psych- matical concepts are rapidly becoming superfluous abilities; to solve a quantitative
iatric medications clearly made it possible for many mental patients to live outside problem, all (excepting programmers and the most innovative theoretical scientists)
institutions, the need for mental hospital beds now exceeds the number available. can merely "push a button. Many critics of modern society, likewise, worry that the
computer will engender a general decline in the species' cognitive ability; they foresee
an illiterate, innumerate future generation which, like that portrayed by Isaac
I live in California. As Robert lives on the opposite coast, he may not be Asimov, is virtually incapable of analytical reasoning.
aware that Reagan was Governer of California before he became President and cut
the budget for state mental institutions aggressively. Many other states followed Cali- Although there is certainly a tendency for people to become dependent upon
fornia's lead. technological solutions to problems which formerly required thinking, but the scien-
tific/technical/hacker culture is not as innumerate as Dr. Frost may believe. What we
. My attitude toward the closing of the mental hospitals and the consequent appear to be heading toward was foreshadowed several decades ago in a chilling
presence of large numbers of the mentally ill on the streets of American cities is science fiction story by C.M. Kornbluth called "The Marching Morons," in which
distinctly right-wing In my opinion, the general population needs to be protected humanity had become divided into a small elite of technocrats and a huge mass of
from the aberrent behavior of both the criminal element and the mentally ill. people whose dysgenic breeding habits had reduced them to total intellectual incom-
petence.
Obviously, deranged people are not guilty of offenses against persons or
property to anywhere near the degree that criminals are, but their confusion and On the last page of her essay, Dr. Frost wrote:
negativity are contagious. This is a major factor in the degradation of the quality of The body of modern knowledge is enormous--too huge for one individual to master it
life in central business and residential districts of major metropolitan areas in the even in 5 lifetimes; continual advancement, especially in the technologies, assures
United States. that every man will always be "slightly ignorant" (even regarding the developments in
his own specialty) and that, inevitably, he will often need to consult references for an
explanation of new discoveries.
I am not without sympathy for people who are suffering from psychosis, but
they are simply not equipped to cope with life outside institutions and their presence While this is correct, as far as it goes, I, for one, am not willing to acquiesce to the
on the streets of the big cities is harmful both to themselves and to others. forces acting to direct modern man into one or another narrow specialty; I have
struggled to become a generalist and, to a limited extent, I have succeeded. Those
who wish to do the same may be interested in my Polymath Apprenticeship Program,
designed as a vehicle for those who wish to do so to become more well-rounded and
to "cover the bases" of the various obligations imposed by life more efficiently.

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 Copyright(:)1996 Since pihenothiazines are effective in counteracting heightened significance, it
Richard W. May may be that Robert was experiencing an excess of serotonin instead of dopamine.

Tnchoare Divaoarionn (satire) Keeping one's bearings in the face of a greatly heightened experience of sig-
nificance is a function of understanding; certain Eastern spiritual disciplines produce
tremendously enhanced experiences, in which the interconnection of everything is
The people are only a symbol of the flag. And who are the perceived directly, without causing disorientation and burnout.
people? Zygotes, embryos, and even fetuses too, one supposes.
If only each fetus worldwide could be born waving a genetically- Robert wrote, "If Kevin has a history of calming and restoring to normal
engineered national flag (American?) ... What is needed is flag- severely psychotic people may he trumpet his success to the world?' I am not
care reform and universal flag insurance. Post-fetal humans, an optimistic about the prospects of severely psychotic people. I believe in devoting my
oxymoron, are obviously of no significance, lacking even the energies to those near the top of the heap rather than those at the bottom. If you
right to die, except, of course, for an Ideology. (Mere help someone who is already functioning well to function better, he will be in a much
precisely living post-fetal humans are without significance. better position to pass on the benefits to those on the next tier down than someone
Corpses or fragments of corpses generally equal or exceed in who is barely functioning.
importance even a lofty zygote.) The bizarre idea that
postpartum life in the physical world here and now has any value This is one aspect of the meaning of the passage below (Matt. 8:21-22):
ox significance is a despicable Jewish heresy. Zygotes are full
actual (rather than potential future) human beings until born, And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury
when as "post-fetals" they are completely free to die on park my father.
benches, but only slowly and without assistance, as good But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
Christians.
It should be totally unacceptable to us as Americans in a Robert wrote:
free society that we all share the light and heat of a connive
sun, and all breathe the same collective mass of atmospheric Psychiatric illnesses can be tricky to form conclusions on. I subscribe to the rule
gases, the air. This condition parallels that of the European- of thirds. One third of the ill will recover without help. One third will recover with
style welfare-states, is as decadent as American Medicare help. One third will not recover. Possibly Kevin has observed the first third and has
(communism), and is forced upon us by our enemy, Nature, drawn unwarranted conclusions about the majority of patients.
depriving us of our freedom. (A free society would not tolerate
Medicare, and would contain no elderly people who were not also I assume we're talking about psychosis here, as three thirds of the general pop-
wealthy, i.e., virtuous.) The sun and the air must be privatized ulation is neurotic to one degree or another.
as soon as our technology makes this possible. One can fully
trust any private sector business or multinational corporation, Without quibbling about exact proportions, I agree with Robert's "rule of
such as the tobacco industry, but not any agency of government. thirds," except that I would say that one third will recover in spite of "help." It is this
Power corrupts, but only government power. So must the U.S. group that supports the illusion that "mental health professionals" generally do their
military be totally privatized immediately. Nature is, of "patients" more good than harm.
course, our enemy and we are completely separate from nature.
The ecological/environmental movement is treason, and hence, the Those that recover are usually suffering from short-term, acute psychosis. The
destruction of the natural environment is a positive goal of the chronically insane generally don't recover.
highest priority. Any alleged "negative" impact of environmental
destruction on post-fetal human health is in any case good for As one hospital attendant told me, "It used to be that you went to a mental hospital
the health-care industry, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, to stay." Now the middle third can be released anti live near-healthy, near-normal
and, of course, the funeral industry. (The free-market economy lives in the general community--just as long as they take their medication.
is, of course, the only source of all human values, except for
religious fundamentalisms. In order to understand the phenomenon There are people who are able to find a new equilibrium through the use of
of fundamentalism, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic, one must only psychiatric medication, then slowly taper off until they are drug-free. In some cases,
reflect upon the meaning of the term "fundament.") In any case this produces very good results. I am not opposed to the use of these drugs in every
good health may only prolong life in this world, be conducive to case. But many of those who continue on medication indefinitely are like zombies
sexual expression, and minimize suffering to a degree, and hence, walking amons us; life without highs and lows is not really living. Robert wrote that
may not be Christian. "some professionals claim that the great majority of mental patients are under-medi-
Drunk drivers should without exception be canonized, because cated"; it is apparent to me that most of them are over-medicated.
they epitomize the supreme American virtue, confidence.
Confidence is what counts, not competence certainly. Ronald Reagan was not an important factor in emptying the mental hospitals.
First of all, these were STATE hospitals. Second. Reagan only slowed the rate of

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NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 22
 example, are a class of drugs that block these drpamine receptors and that are Page 2
currently the drugs of choice in the treatment of schizophrenia. Conversely, drugs
that stimulate these dopamine receptors produce a state that closely resembles Throughout the history of Western culture, the ancient Greek
schizophrenia Amphetamine ... is a drug that is a stimulant of dopmine . philosophers, the Hebrew prophets, the Church fathers, and Jesus
receptors, and amphetamine-induced psychosis is at the present time the best are as one in their estimation of confidence as the paramount
available model of acute schizophrenia. virtue. The leading U.S. presidential contender when queried as
to whom he would choose as his running mate said that he would
The phenothiazines are the drugs mentioned by Robert in #107. He is also pick someone who was confident.
correct that the beginning of widespread use of phenothiazines and other psychiatric Der Fuehrer was confident; Kafka was not. (Be confident and
medications coincided with a marked decline in psychiatric hospitalization. Figure 7.1 smile for an omnipresent viewing audience, like the Butcher of
in A Pruner of Drug Action (p. 125) shows a decline of approximately 37% in the Brentwood.) Confidence is certainly not merely a psychological
mental-hospital population of the United States, from 540,000 to 340,000, be-tween convenience for the person possessing it, but the supreme virtue
1956 and 1970. of American culture, as is fitting. After all, confidence is
good for the economy, of unsurpassed excellence in military
(There seems to be some uncertainty as to how to count mental hospital adventures, an essential element of sports worship, - not to
patients. An article by Earl Ubell, in the February 11, 1996 issue of Parade magazine, mention handy for rapists.
gives 630,000 as the U.S. mental hospital population in 1960, while the figure in A The authors of the U.S. constitution never intended to limit
Primer of Ding Action mentioned above shows the 1960 population as 520,000. This is the second amendment right of citizens to bear arms to the
probably not a serious discrepancy for the purpose of the present discussion, as men- weapons technology available at that time. Every American has
tal-hospital populations were presumably counted by the same method for each year the constitutional right (which ought to be exercised) to possess
listed in Figure 7.1.) state-of-the-art tactical nuclear weapons. Nukes don't kill,
people do. The possible annihilation of American cities in
Robert characterized dopamine as "the significance chemical." However, domestic disputes is a small price to pay for our freedom.
drugs which act on the dopamine receptors in the brain, such as amphetamine and Rome didn't fall in a day. Americans should not criticize
cocaine, do not generally produce in users a sense of heiptened significance; rather, America, because America has freedom of speech. America is the
they relieve the chronic background of psychic pain which people live with without undisputed moral leader of the world, often with a commanding
noticing it. When this this pain is relieved, they experience a sense of euphoria. lead over that of many of her allies in the rates of functional
illiteracy, homicide, rape, homelessness, AIDS, and citizens
The drugs which do commonly produce a sense of heightened significance are lacking health insurance. Ideally, the middle class will
the psychedelics. (The word psychedelic means "mind manifesting.") Table 8.1 in A eventually be eliminated entirely or greatly reduced in size, and
Primer of Drug Action (p. 139) differentiates four classes of psychedelics, including the economic distance between the wealth-elite and the remainder
serotonin pscyedelics (LSD, DMT, and psilocybin), norephinephiin psychedelics (mes- vastly increased by winner-take-all free-marketism which is the
caline, MDMA ["ecstasy," not listed in A Primer because it was not available when source of all value and values. Darwin must supplant the
the book was written, although closely related substances such as MDA are listed]), communism of the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism, and Islam.
acyetylcholine psychedelks (atropine, scopalamine), and psychedelic anesthetics (e.g., The Sisyphean jihad known as the "war on drugs" and the
ketamine), for which the operant neurotransmitter receptor sites were unidentified casualties of this war serve as a ubiquitous and everlasting
as of the publication date of Julien's Primer. monument to our moral superiority. Consequently, there is no
drug problem in America and illegal drugs must never be
The first two categories include the drugs which are particularly noted for decriminalized.
created a heightened sense of the significance of thought and perception. In addition, If possible, in sharp contrast to present practices in
marijuana and hashish (usually not considered true psychedelics) also produce sensa- America, individuals who are chronically unemployed, individuals
tions of enhanced significance. with low cognitive ability, individuals who have histories which
manifest propensities to violence, especially if unmarried and/or
It is worth noting, in this connection, that chlorpromazine (commonly known drug and alcohol abusers, should be given significant financial
by the brand name Thorazine), mentioned in the quotation from Julien above, was incentives to have (preferably large numbers of) children for
known as early as the 1960's as an antidote for certain of the effects of LSD and was others to support and to keep the social service bureaucracies
used to "bring down" people who were undergoing frightening experiences (known and prison system vital. In the unimaginably unlikely case that
as "bad trips"). there were genetic factors in any of the preceding, such as low
cognitive ability or propensity to violent behavior, these
I experimented with LSD when I was younger. Once I had a trip during which individuals should be especially rewarded economically for
things began to seem entirely too real. I took some Thorazine. All the negative, bum- generating offspring. In the equally unlikely event that social
mer feelings continued, while the interesting, psychedelic perceptions, including the dysfunction increased following such enlightened practices, then
heightened sense of significance, went away. obviously the solution would be to give these individuals even
larger financial incentives for reproducing.

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 Page 3
If the job market does not absorb the resultant progeny, then one Reply to Robert Dick on Psychiatric Medication
could always expand enrollment at Harvard Medical School to
whatever extent is required. Kevin Langdon
It is imperative that the laws criminalizing homicide be P.O. Box 795
repealed immediately and that the Decalogue also be accordingly Berkeley, CA 94701
revised. Clearly these laws discriminate statistically against (510) 524-0345
certain politically-correct groups and not to repeal them is 75061.3251@[Link]
racist (and sexist). We cannot condone laws which discriminate
against certain racial, ethnic, or gender groups, while favoring
others. This is, of course, not to be confused with "affirmative I was interested in Robert Dick's letter regarding psychiatric medication in
action" and opposition to the practice of "affirmative action", #118. Robert has calmed down about the matters on which we disagree and pro-
which is manifestly quite different. duced some thought-provoking material which deserves a serious response.
Obviously court-ordered busing to achieve "racial balance"
in the public schools did not go far enough and should have been Robert wrote:
reinforced by Federally-mandated interracial marriage. "Forced
boating" ought to have been utilized also to install dolphins First, let me note that there are two different kinds of "spaced-outness" in the
from our coastal waters in the public schools to achieve species "mentally" ill. First historically, after many years of being overexcited, people fall into
balance and to enhance academic standards. a burnt-out stupor. The mental health professionals call this regression.
On the subject of race and intelligence, it is The problem I am most interested in, because it seems to be mine, is an excess of
incontrovertible that I.Q. tests measure nothing but the cultural dopamine in the brain. I think of dopamine as the significance chemicaL When I have
privilege and racial/gender bias of the dominant oppressor group, too much everything seems to be highly significant You may think you would keep
and that intelligence could have no possible genetic basis, even your bearings if this happened to you, but I asssure you you wouldn't. Anyway, after
if it had any importance. Historically, progress in science and decades of universal high significance you bum out Nothing seems any more signifi-
in mathematics in particular can be traced to individuals having cant than anything else, and it all makes no sense, so why bother? You sit in a chair
high Emotional Intelligence (E.Q.), who are certainly not all day, if you are lucky, or you wander the streets a "spaced-out" relic, if you are not.
distinguished by analytical ability and knowledge. (If you The other "spaced out" effect is a side effect of medication.
entertain a different view, then you are necessarily a racist
and/or sexist.) Nevertheless the U.S. government has a clear and I agree with the implications of the quotation marks around "mentally." The
obvious moral imperative to institute a program of systematically conditions in question are at least as much disorders of the emotions and the body as
brain-damaging at birth the infants of any racial-ethnic groups of the intellect.
or gender group suspected of distinguishing themselves in the
domain of either I.Q. tests or actual intellectual/cultural I've known a number of people who did large quantities of psychedelics in the
achievement as a minimalist strategy for achieving equality and 60's who "burned out." They seem to have permanently lost some key circuits in their
combating racism and sexism. Perhaps the fetuses of these groups brains; not a single one I've known has ever recovered a certain basic equilibrium
must be selectively aborted; not to abort them would be that we recognize as "normal." Some mentally ill people I've known have suffered
genocidal. from a similar condition.
Originally there were, of course, an infinite number of
distinct and mutually contradictory divine revelations to an Science has a lot going for it; I have great respect for the scientific method,
infinity of prophets. Endless free-market competition among which insists on concrete verification before conclusions are taken to be true. But a
various infinities of revelations culminated in the Torah of weakness of scientists--and of those who imitate them, like most "mental health pro-
Moses, the Quran, etc. which outsold the others shekel for fessionals"--is the tendency to coin terminology indiscriminately, without regard for
shekel, thereby validating their value. Hence we see that the that simplicity and order which avoids unnecessary confusion and conduces to the
free market is the source of revelation itself, and therefore smooth operation of memory. It is unfortunate that burnout after chronic overexcite-
also of all revealed human values. (Fortuitously the revelations ment is called "regression," because this lends itself to confusion with the same term
received by one's own tribe are inerrant and final for all time, as it is used in psychoanalysis: to designate the reemergence of ego states corres-
whereas those received by the other tribes are less than ponding to earlier periods in the life of the analysand.
inestimable.) Perhaps, too, the Dow of Wall Street is identical
synchronistically with the ineffable Tao of Chinese philosophy. Robert is right that an excess of dopamine seems to be involved in
Jesus was a loser, perhaps the ultimate loser. How much did schizophrenia. According to Robert M. Julien, in A Primer of aug Action (San Fran-
his Father in heaven pay him for dying on the cross and taking cisco: W.H. Freeman, 3rd Edition, 1981), p. 127:
away sins and all that? So were the Hebrew prophets, Lao-Tzu,
and the innumerable Buddhas - all losers. A dopamine theory of schizophrenia is based upon pharmacological evidence that
drugs that block dopamine receptors ... within the CNS are clinically useful in the
treatment of schizophrenia. The phenothiazines, of which chlorpromazine is an
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 24
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 9
 Page 4
Petitioning such people for the kind of attention I need is an exercise in self-
flagellation. Sports worship is the penultimately sublime expression of
the human spirit and ought to be everywhere and at all times
I sympathize with Chris on this point. It's very difficult to entice people to encouraged as the supreme value, except in so far as it detracts
make any intellectual efforts. But, as I've said before, the most practical first step from America worship. Nationalism is never idolatry. (Whatever
would be for Chris to write a primer on his ideas. I'm glad that he's actually doing so. nation one happens to be born in one owes total patriotic
I promise to read it all the way through, eventually, as other commitments permit. If allegiance to every evil present there, which is to be upheld as
people were able to grasp some simple ideas concretely they might be more willing to the good. This allegiance to evil based upon accident of birth
struggle with his more abstruse material. is a great virtue.) And, of course, God would only require that
the minutiae of our supposed theological beliefs be correct.
According to you, I'm "the one who craves recognition." If you mean that I'm The propositions of an Ideology are either absolutely true
the only such person in this group, you're dead wrong. not only would you fall afoul or absolutely false as mathematical theorems are true or false,
of human psychology, but several members (you included) have announced various or at very least as equations in physics are correct or
high-profile projects of your own, and at least one other member--Rick Rosner--has incorrect. How convenient it is for our leaders that though
stated repeatedly, in his habitual eye-catching way, that he wants to be famous. physical reality has four or perhaps eleven or more dimensions,
political reality has only one dimension (left-right) or at most
I'm well aware of the presence of a number of well-developed egos in the two dimensions, if time is included. The space of Ideology
Mega Society. My remarks were in relation to Chris' complaints about his material consists of only a left-right dimension with neither a vertical
not being received as cordially as, in his opinion, would have been appropriate. The dimension nor a dimension of depth. (Not that Ideological
point is that other people have their own interests and concerns. If Chris wants his assertions literally lack depth.) There is no up wing and down
stuff to be recognized, it's up to him to figure out how to get that recognition. wing, or front wing and back wing. Liberal and conservative,
Complaining about lack of recognition is a sure-fire recipe for not being taken libertarian and populist, social left and right, and economic
seriously. left and right: one is the totality of invariant goodness and
truth; the other the totality of invariant evil and untruth. The
Kevin, one thing should by now be obvious to you: my work isn't easy to shoot down. interplay or dance of the polarities in multidimensional space-
You attribute this to imprenetrability, but you're dissembling. Men have tried and time is quite unimportant. One's own Ideology is surely an
men have died. accurate model of reality, not in large measure one which
attempts to induce others to believe or not to believe this and
Chris' stuff reminds me of the Polish Godfather: he'll make you an offer you to do or not to do that. Reality is so much less unwieldy when
can't understand. When a proposition isn't clearly stated, the more sensible cntics it is packaged in an uncomplicated Ideology.
don't see anything to shoot at, while the fools rush in to dispute what they don't Marxists hold that property is theft, whereas libertarians
understand. This doesn't prove anything, one way or the other. claim that taxation is theft. Never think that Ideology itself
is theft; theft of reason; theft of truth. The people are only a
symbol of the flag. Life is always less precious than an
Ideology.

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 8 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 25
 TWO LETTERS AND A TELESCOPE ARTICLE FROM CHRIS HARDING
Reply to Chris Langan's Response
Dear Rick: 5-22-96
Kevin Langdon
Here we go again: P.O. Box 795
Berkeley, CA 94701
Maxim accuses me and others once more. I suspect that he is aware that many (510) 524-0345
of our Mega members would be classed as public figures by the courts which 75061.3251@[Link]
gives him immunity under U.S. defamation laws.
Please let me say this: On the two tests where Kevin Langdon was compared to
other Mega members, he clearly outranked them. These tests are as much a I have a few thoughts on "Chris Langan Responds to Kevin Langdon," in
Noesis #118. Chris wrote:
template of mental performance and level as any of the other high-level tests
such as those in more common use for Mega selection. I for one have never When I called for an election, it was supposed to include editorial guidelines on
been one to deny someone something. Topping a data processors exam is I am content, scheduling, circulation, and so on. Since no guidelines were included, the
sad to say not quite the same thing. Why does Mr. Maxim not take the same election I called for has not been held.
tests as Kevin?
Any member of Mega can make a proposal to be voted on by the membership
As for his assertion that Kevin Langdon and I are very good buddies, one only at any time, but it's up to the member to word his or her own proposals. I agree that
has to read some of Kevin's on-going comments to realize otherwise. Wasn't I it's a good idea to have some editorial guidelines. My proposals for such guidelines
the founder of that Society called I.S.P.E. from which Kevin was expelled (during appear elsewhere in this issue of Noesis. Crhis is free to present proposals of his own
the late 1970's)? No wounds have ever healed here. to be voted on by Mega members.
As for norm errors in tests: Knowing (if it's the case) that a test is out by five
points at one place on its scale will tell one nothing about any other place on the As for Chris' remarks about the questionable legitimacy of the election proce-
dures, it doesn't matter, because it wasn't even close. In the real world, Rick is the
scale. Populations themselves can be strikingly atypical of each other. Many Editor of Noesis; I'm not interested in rehashing this and, obviously, neither is
such reports have been made about this in the psychometric literature. anybody else besides Chris.
It seems to me that Paul Maxim's attacks have about them a scatter-gun
approach to the problem he is grappling with. Rather than engaging in I'm not sure you understood me when I asked how to elicit a confession of plagiarism
absurdities he might take some of the high-level tests Kevin and others have in the absence of legal force. Of the three kinds of proprietary law affecting U.S.
citizens, none covers either mathematical or philosophical ideas. If these can be
already taken. If at the end of the day he is able to qualify, he will have proven a paraphrased, then in the absence of speical agreements, they can be stolen with legal
point about his ability to take and master tests. If however he cannot, he should impunity. This leaves only professional censure as a deterrente. Unfortunately, pro-
forfeit the right to claims of being misunderstood. either way he should cease fessionals tend to run in herds. They aren't generally too interested in what
his attacks on us. nonprofessionals claim to have thought of first.

I understand the question; Chris doesn't understand the answer. It's true that
Chris Harding ideas can't be trademarked, copyrighted, or patented (although the courts have
shown an inclination to allow the protection of algorithms under certain conditions).
P.S.: I'm going to add installment number one of my new project--a 30-inch And they aren't eligible for protection as trade secrets, either. It's also true that
telescope mirror which I'm currently quite excited about. I'll break this professionals tend to protect their own and ignore outsiders, though many of the best
contribution up into parts to save any possible member irritation at having to of them do not share this ignoble trait. Chris' problem is to get his stuff noticed either
by enough people or by important enough people that nobody can get away with steal-
read reams of uninteresting detail about this newer experiment of mine. You ing it.
see, as before, I'll be reporting it blow-by-blow as the drama unfolds! I might say
at the outset I have a strong (guesstimated) probability of failure. a friend and Let's try a little thought experiment. Somebody devises a high-range I.Q. test
member of the local astronomy club Jeff A., who called back after the meeting including items showing five views of a three-dimensional object and requesting the
last Thursday and who saw the two big glass disks for the first time said, 'You testee to draw the sixth view. He claims to have invented this item type. Many people
are a brave man." Well, a fryer if nothing else! point out that the originator of items of this type was Ronald K. Hoeflin. Ron isn t a
millionaire; he doesn t have a huge advertising budget. But he's been smart enough
to get his stuff noticed.

You see, after all these years,I'm no longer sure that anything of a philosophical
nature is capable of impressing any Mega member at this point in his or her life....

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 26 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 7
 A 78cm MIRROR?
Reply to Ron Hoeflin on Free Will
April 1, 1996:today I took possession of the 3 disks of glass that had been on
Kevin Langdon order from [Link]: There are 78 cm in diameter and of 12mm thickness
P.O. Box 795 (30.7" x .5"). After taking into account the beveled edges this comes down to
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 524-0345 30.55 inches which edge will need to be maintained throughout the grinding
75061.3251@[Link] process to prevent splintering of the disk's edge and potentially fatal scarring of
the optical surface I shall therefore in future refer to the mirror as the 30 1/2
inch mirror or just to the 30-inch mirror to avoid any exaggeration of its size! I
In "Ron Hoeflin on Kevin Langdon and Free Will," in Noesis #118, Ron immediately took them around to Novus windscreens (by taxi, the taxi driver
wrote:
driving very slowly and refusing to handle them on being told how much they had
In Noesis #115, page 9, Kevin Langdon concedes that there may be free will, but cost me!) who said they would be able to glue the three disks of glass together
"the possibility of freedom resides in the attention." But it remains unclear to me why and that the ultra-strength glue they would be using would hold the three disks
attention itself exists if it cannot be put to use to accomplish anything. together for a lifetime! Perhaps they had noted I am already of a fair age!
Amateurs have for decades experimented with laminated disks for telescope
Ron is asking a good question here. If attention did not serve a useful
function, the complex circuitry which supports it would not have arisen in the brains mirrors but only recently with anything that looks like success.
of animals.
I estimated the weight of the mirror blank at 112 lbs. My current body weight is
Many expedient actions are carried out by animals reflexively or through 212 lbs. (Since first writing this I have learned my scales, bless them, are 5kg or
other instinctive (hard-wired) activity, which takes no attention. Brain-dead people 12Ibs under!) Since it would be quite impossible for me to work the mirror by
have reflexes, blood circulation, etc. Other actions involve only a mechanical, rote
attention (one stroke in brushing one's teeth, taking one step, myriads of tiny habits); hand face down over a full-size tool given its size and my medical condition, I
such actions involve some attention but no intention. Still others involve a weighing had instead intended to grind, polish and figure the optical surface face-up using
process in which motivating forces meet and are felt together, resulting in an a sub-diameter tool of 51 cm or just over 20 inches which should prove hopefully
intention. But this is still not free will. One is moved by forces; the vector sum of the just within my current physical capacity. At the outset it was unknown how fast
forces is the intention. the concaving process would be or how far in the focus could be brought before
The attention is lazy; it's in the habit of wandering. In order to reason about
my sheer persistence alone might be found wanting. A few preliminary computer
something, organize all the factors involved, and reach a conclusion, a force must checks using a program I'd written showed me that to correct such a large mirror
oppose the tendency to free associate. When thought becomes habitual it is no to within 1/8 of a wave of light would be nigh on impossible. A figure brought to
longer properly called thought, but only associating; this, also, is not freewill. It takes within 1/4 of a wave also looked nearly as bad in the design stage. Instead I
an active effort to maintain concentration. In addition to intellectual thought, there is planned to make what is commonly called a 'light bucket.' Such a telescope
a kind of active "thought" involved in the functioning of the emotions, movement, would be quite satisfactory for star work and perhaps even for the lunar surface
and sensation, although Western psychology has no words for it.
but would not reveal any more detail on the planets than say a 12 or 16-inch
Consciousness is passive; thought is active; will mediates bewteen them. Peo- mirror quite apart from the fact that for a perfectly corrected system of this size
ple are confused because their consciousness is active and their thought is passive. on would need uncommonly stable seeing conditions to resolve much finer detail
than these sizes.
Whenever habitual embroidery of what is perceived is taking place, the ener-
gy of consciousness is diverted and one no longer sees the real world. As with
thought, this is not properly called consciousness; it is a kind of "waking sleep." The Rockhampton is just within the tropics and not much above sea level. It is
effort to still the mind and recover the natural minor-like quality of the calm waters separated from the coast by mountain ranges standing as high as 1983 feet and
of consciousness is the aim of what the spiritual traditions call meditation. Advanced has mountains all around it. The mountain areas are built upon for residential
practitioners of meditative disciplines develop an awareness of the presence of the purposes. A test of a lot of these sites using up to a 10-inch telescope showed
primordial stillness underneath even the most frenetic external activity and remain no noticeable gain over the main area of the town. We have yet to test the Mt.
open to clear perception of reality. This is the meaning of the Taoist and Zen prin- Morgan ranges. Our seeing is in general superior to that of Bundeberg (site of
ciple sometimes expressed in English as "Don't push the river."
the 19-inch telescope) which sits almost on the coast and ahead of the big cities
Only through the control of attention by the will do consciousness and thought Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne but our seeing is still far from the best
occupy their rightful places and serve a larger whole. available in the country. At the time of writing the largest full operational

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 6 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 27
telescope in Rockhampton is that built by my life-long friend Bob Berry which
has an aperture of 14 inches and focal length of 130 inches and weighs a Dr. Hoeflin does all his statistical work by hand, so it may be difficult for him
quarter of a ton! This can be used with powers up to at least x812 that we have to perform a study of this kind, but I am happy to oblige. I did a study on a sample of
so far tested. It is a very fine instrument and I hope to use a barlow lens on this LAIT testees, with the following results:
in the near future as it would be capable of standing a much higher power. As
Number and Mean Score on Various Tests by Society Membership,
for the focal length of my own mirror I decided to play this one by ear if not by Based on Previous Scores Reported by 3580 Recent LAIT Testees
eye! I would begin with both an open mind and with little in the way of
expectations about the outcome-given the size of the task I would be setting Test Mensa Intertel Top 1% ISPE TNS FSS
myself.
Cattell Verbal
20 9 3 3 5
April 4, 1996: Thursday-Novus delivered the 30-inch mirror blank to the house; Mean 154.4 150.0 138.7 149.7 143.4
I watched the two men struggle in with it, at this point admitting that one of the CI'MM
outer disks (What other disk could it have been?) had only been 'spot glued,' 18 9 3 3
something which added further worries for me. They did however say I would Mean 141.9 141.2 130.7 146.7
GRE
not be able to get the disks apart at this point. I decided to let everything settle
7 16
for some time in the hope that the lamination would 'firm up' with time if indeed Mean 1463 1445
this could add anything to the quality of the job already done-at least I would Mega
maximize my chances if nothing else. 7 8 6 9
Mean 24.3 23.5 24.7 34.1
Raven
May 10, 1996: Friday--I took delivery of the 20-inch laminated tool I would be 6 3 5
grinding the mirror with. This consisted of two 51 cm diameter disks glued Mean 34.2 34.0 34.4
together in the same way as the 30-inch blank; one 0.6 of an inch (15mm) thick, SAT
the other 0.4 of an inch giving a combined thickness less the glue of 1 inch 6 3 4 21
which I thought should be adequate to act as a tool for the larger blank. Due to Mean 1430 1457 1461 1435
Stanford-Binet
out-of-season rains I had been delayed in obtaining my finished tool from Novus
3 9
who wanted to place the job in the sun to firm it up. Mean 148.7 167.8
Titan
3 3 3
July 22, 1996 Mean 23.0 23.0 23.0
WAIS
8 4 6 3
Here we go yet again: Mean 140.6 140.8 139.0 138.7
W-87
How many more times must I repeat that the only person quoted as having a 196 5 3 3
IQ in the 1982 edition of Guinness was Leta Speyer. I did, don't, and probably Mean 172.6 168.3 179.3
won't know the EXACT EQUIVALENT score Kevin Langdon's test would make
Notes: Results were not reported for N less than three. There was not enough data to include the
on the Binet, only that he out-ranked considerably those of OTHER Mega Prometheus and Mega societies.
members on the two tests reviewed, making it quite obvious he is in. This point
has previously been covered in statements by myself and others. As for myself The Mensa members included in the LATT sample are not a random sample
and for others we were at one point required some years ago to back up the of Mensans. Results for the CalleU Verbal, CTMM, and WAIS reflect the reliance of
Mega membership records which were placed in the official membership list Mensa and Intertel on these instruments for selection of members; clearly these
standard tests are measuring something which differs in certain respects from what is
published at the time: THAT OCCURRED BECAUSE THE TWO MEGA measured by the high-range tests constructed by Dr. Hoeflin, Alan Aax, and me. The
SOCIETIES ONCE AGAIN GOT BACK TOGETHER-SOMETHING KNOWN TO GRE and SAT lack sufficient ceiling to discriminate at high levels. The Mega, Raven,
ALL THE THEN-CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE MEGA SOCIETY. I don't know and Titan tests tend to be taken only by highly gifted individuals and thus do not show
how many members have joined since who were not on that list. This comment significant differences between members of the societies represented here. W-87
is for their benefit not Mr. Maxim. scores are clearly inflated. If the mean of the W-87 is 100, the standard deviation is in
the vicinity of 28. However, ISPE members do tend to score higher than Mensa and
Intertel members on this test used for ISPE admissions.

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 28 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 5
 Reply to Paul Maxim on the Relative Performance of Menu
The puzzle to me is that Mr. Maxim is allowed to make demand after demand on
and ISPE Members on Various Measures of Intellectual AbIlity each of us whom he disagrees with. It resembles the insults that fly around on
the Internet about Mensa. THESE ON-GOING INSULTS WE CAN DO
Kevin Langdon WITHOUT.
P.O. Box 795
Berkeley, CA 94701 I don't' usually publish or comment on letters I receive but since he has already
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] indicated such correspondence with some of us I may state his previous letters
to me have already questioned the status of Kevin Langdon on a whole range of
issues which I have repeatedly denied as have others according to letters I have
In "How Intelligent Is ISPE?" (Noes& #116) Paul Maxim noted that the here from them which I have received from time to time in the last few years: yet
scores of ISPE members are not significantly different from those of Mensa members
on my tests and Ron Hoeffin's. Mr. Maxim wrote: he still goes public with the same wild accusations as though he has not read
our replies!
Interpretation. In searching for some possible explanation for these unusual results, a
number of theories might be considered, as follows: That Mr. Maxim cannot check up on many things is something confined to
I. The Mena members enjoyed some special "advantage" as compared to the himself; I founded ISPE 22 years ago and my work in psychometrics pre-dates
ISPE members, such as "self-selection": i.e., only the most intelligent Memans came
forward to take Mega. this yet he finds it strange that such data is no longer available presumably to
This theory doesn't seem to bold any special plausibility, since by the late 1980's, him—why should it be available to him? I know of no one in the field who would
there were enough ISPE members to allow "self-selection" to operate there as well make score results available to the public. Results in summary have already
In fact, the results of this study appear to argue against the entire concept of "self- been published widely. This is all anyone ever does after all. I would point out
selection," precisely because the ISPE members did so poorly.
to newer members of the Mega Society (points in fact already made) that I was
Not everyone can be expected to be equally enthusiastic about submitting twice asked to join the International Test commission, the world body policing
answers to very difficult 1.0. tests; a greater percentage of those who can do well will test construction, on the basis of my published work. I resigned in January of
probably do so. Certainly, a higher percentage of ISPE members than a Mensa this year after being a member for over a decade but my resignation has not
members actually took the LAIT and the Mega Test. The fact that the principle of been accepted. I cannot have a higher recommendation for my work than this.
self-selection applies to members of both Mensa and ISPE does not mean that it can-
not apply to these two classes differentially.
There is a point in all our lives for everything—that point having passed we
Mr. Maxim wrote: cannot be brought back to account for those interests/activities that have long
passed their 'use-by' date. As far as I am concerned I have won acceptance
Further Confirmation Needed. One further mode of confirmation which might be from those who count and in this respect I am by no means alone.
applied to the above studies would be to gather statistics pertaining to the perfor-
mance of both Mensans and ISPE members on standard tests. The main difficulty
here is to obtain the data from those who (presumably) have it; both Mensa and ISPE As for fights that go on within the various high-IQ/AQ groups.. .these are much
have proven uncooperative in this regard. Alter all, it is now rather late in the day; like back-fence arguments between neighbors—a model I have always thought a
had they wanted to perform these kinds of studies, and make their results public, they good one for wars. More or less amounts of that wonderful stuff called
would have done so a long time ago. democracy have nothing to do with it. The boundary is reached when the
A oetain amount of data pertaining to standard test scores reported by members activities of those who wish to continue with their disputes reach the point where
of these two societies is aho in the pcussession of Messrs. Langdon and Hoeflin, since
each LAIT and/or Mega testa was called upon to report such scores along with it begins to destabilize the organization. There are two views of this—they are
submission of his test form for scoring So far, to the best of my knowledge, such held both public (as a concept) and internal (within the personality framework of
"standard" score data has never been compiled and published, but perhaps these two the person) and at some point the editor issues a statement that the matter is
testmaken will now come forward, and shed a little more factual illumination on this now closed when he starts receiving complaints from the members that XYZ has
important topic. taken up too much journal space and that others wish also to be published and
Mr. Maxim is right about the unfortunate failure of the high-I.Q. societies to that people are sick of the debate. ISPE's cutoff in this regard is around one or
make use of data in their possession for studies of this kind. I was disappointed, but two letters. In our case it seems to resemble Cantors transfinite numbers.
not surprised, to read in his essay that "We have been told, by a responsible Mensa
officer, that, folllowing the testing and/or evaluation of each candidate, all test data is Chris. Harding
destroyed, save for a notation, in the member's file, as to which test he or she qualified
on." [italics Maxim's]

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 4 NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 29
 CHESS PROBLEMS BY JEFF WARD
DEADLINE DECEMBER IS, 1998 Comments on Recent Issues or Noesis

Kevin Langdon
For your amusement and entertainment, I am submitting eight onginal chess problems for publication in P.O. Box 795
Noesis. There will be two problems per issue, beginning with this one. I composed most of the problems Berkeley, CA 94701
many years ago when, for a relatively brief period of time. I became fascinated with this type of puzzle. Two (510) 524-0345
of the problems were published in a British magazine; the remainder have never been published. The 75061.3251@[Link]
member or subscriber who correctly solves the largest number (minimum of four correct) will receive a free
subscription to Noesis for a full year. In case of a tie, a name will be randomly drawn from those who are tied.
I applaud Paul Maxim's essay, "The Kormes Case and Its Aftermath," in
For those unfamiliar with the format of chess problems, the challenge is to find the sequence of moves that Noesis #116. The ISPE has consistently acted to suppress dissent, with no regard for
accomplishes the indicated goal. With these eight problems, the goal is to checkmate Black in the stated due process. It's good that Mr. Maxim has pointed out the one-sidedness of the
number of White moves. White always moves first. In general, there is only one White move in response ISPE 's reporting, in Telitont, of the judge's findings in John Kormes' lawsuit against
to each possible Black move. You must assume that Black will always make the best possible move, even
the society. I have one small correction. Mr. Maxim wrote that six ISPE members
if the only result is to delay the White checkmate beyond the stated number of moves.
were expelled in 1979. The members he was referring to are the founders of the
For example, if the problem caption says White mates in two," only one White first move guarantees a Triple Nine Society. There were only/lye of us, including Ron Hoeflin and me.
checkmate of Black on White's second move. All other White first moves allow Black to at least delay the
checkmate. I was interested in Glenn Arthur Morrison's proposal for a synthetic-
aperature space telescope in Noesis #117. Mr. Morrison proposes placing the
You need not supply White's checkmating move nor Black's last move as part of your answer. However, all telescope in orbit around the earth/moon system at a distance of about 1.85 lunar-
prior moves by both sides must be supplied. Specifically, your answer should contain the following: orbit radii, noting that this orbit would be unstable, requiring periodic corrections.
Perhaps the lunar L4 or L5 point would be a better choice. These two points are
• 2-move problems: White's first move. along the moon's orbit, sixty degrees on either side of the moon. Objects in such
• 3-move problems: White's first move: each possible Black first move with the appropriate White orbits which begin to drift away will tend to be shepherded by dynamic forces back
second move in response. into place. Judging from Mr. Morrison's considerable technical knowledge, I would
• 4-move problems: White's first move; each possible Black first move with the appropnate White have expected him to have considered this possibility--and perhaps he did so and
second move in response; each possible Black second move with the appropriate White third move found this solution technically unfeasible; if so I would be interested to know the
in response. reason. (One possible reason is the expected presence in the 1.4 and L.5 regions of a
certain amount of naturally accumulated dust and debris, suspended there through
Partially correct answers will be disqualified. the dynamic forces mentioned above, although, as far as I know, such material has
not been detected to date.)
You can use any notation system you want to describe the moves as long as it provides clear and
unambiguous information. You may want to use the conventional system in which each square of the board I'd like to correct two errors in my "Reply to Paul Maxim on the Norming of
has a unique coordinate based on rows (ranks) numbered 1-8 and columns (files) a-h. The pieces are the LAIS" in #117. One item out of six (rather than one out of 16) was wrong among
abbreviated: K for king, CI for queen, R for rook, B for bishop: S for knight (to differentiate from the king), and the "answers" to items on the GAIT published by New Zealand Mensa (Singapore
P for pawn. got 16 out of 16). And the number of testees in the sample used in the first norming
of the LAIT was 147, not 155.
A move is descnbed by noting the piece moved followed by the destination square. For example, a move by
the queen to the lower left comer of the board is described as Cla1. Captures are signified by: x; and checks
by +. For example, if a rook captures a pawn while delivering check on square c2, the notation is: Rac24. Paul Maxim's character assassination and groundless accusations of fraud in
Castling is 0-0 (kingside) or 0-0-0 (queenside); en passant is e.p.; and pawn promotion is indicated by: = his letter in #119 titled "Response to Kevin Langdon's Letters in NOESIS Nos. 117
followed by the piece selected. (Underpromotion of a pawn, if possible, should always be considered in a and 118" do not deserve a reply.
chess problem.) For example, a pawn move to the a8 square with promotion to a queen is described as
Pal3=0; or if a knight is selected, Pa8=S. Occasionally, in order to avoid ambiguity, it is necessary to indicate In his letter in #119, Chris Harding denied being the source of the erroneous
either the origin square of the move or what kind of piece was captured. Guinness "highest I.Q." listing. The 1982 edition includes the following sentence:
"Comparison close to the ceilings are impracticable as are comparabilities between
The board is oriented so that Black is at the top and White is at the bottom. In other words, in the starting one scale and another." I believe that this wording appeared in a document authored
position of a game. White's king is on square el. by Chis prior to the date of publication of the Gsanness listing, but this document
might have reached the Guinness people from another source.
Send all solutions by the indicated deadline to:
As readers of this publication know, I have not always been able to appreciate
Jeff Ward Ron Yannone's material, but I found his article titled 'The Making of Optical
13155 Wimberly Square 0284 Illusions," in Noesis #120, very interesting. I enjoy these effects and would like the
San Diego, CA 92128 reference for the "Optical Toys" company which he mentioned at the end of his
article. (I suspect that other readers of Noesis would also be interested in this.)
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 30
NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 3
 Chess Problems by Jeff Ward
Proposed Editorial Guidelines
2.
Kevin Langdon
P.O. Box 795
Berkeley, CA 94701 8 8
(510) 524-0345
75061.3251@[Link] 7 7
6 6
A number of Mega members have complained about the appear- 5 5
ance of certain types of material in Noesis.
4 4
As demonstrated by the recent election for Editor, members are 3 3
reluctant to turn out an incumbent who's doing a good job of getting out
issues of Noesis on a reasonably frequent schedule, but there is nonethe- 2 2
less clearly some dissatisfaction with the way material is selected for
publication. 1 1
abcde f gh a bcde f g h
According to Mega's Constitution and established procedures,
any member can call for a vote on a proposal at any time. Therefore, White mates in two White mates in two
without any bad feelings toward Rick, among whose supporters I count
myself, I would like to offer the following proposed editorial guidelines,
each to be voted on separately by the membership:
1. No accusation of crime or misconduct shall be published without
proof of the truth of the accusation being furnished by the accuser nor
without the accused person or persons being afforded the opportunity
to reply in the same issue of Noesis in which the accusation is printed.
2. Each non-member of the Mega Society shall be limited to no more
than four pages of material published in Noesis per calendar quarter.
3. No dot-matrix-printed material shall be published without retyping.
4. No material shall be reduced below 8-point type.
5. Tabular material shall be limited to a maximum of four pages. --RA at p'tA P frtt4 ft, Ketirs

When I spoke with Rick about my intention to offer some pro- Ce..4-./CaW 0%-twt-d
posals to be voted on, he requested that I collect them in a document in oUaLt frpLA,..-11;70
a larger point size so that members wouldn't miss them. I have done
that here. (atiA0 aleAnAlt 4
Comments on these proposals should be sent to the Editor in time
for the next issue, after which we'll take a vote on them.
/

NOESIS Number 122 August 1996 page 2 NOESIS Nubiber 122 August 1996 page 31
 NOESIS
The Journal of the Mega Society
Number 122
August 1998
EDITOR
it Rosner
3711 Rhodes Ave
IL Hollywood CA 91807-1827
(818) 988-8230
STANDARD NOTICES: Dues are two bucks per issue. Back issues are a buck
fifty. Checks are payable to Rosner, not Noesis or Mega. One free issue for each
two pages of published material you submit.

IN THIS ISSUE:

NINE ITEMS FROM KEVIN LANGDON--

PROPOSED EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
COMMENTS ON RECENT ISSUES OF NOESIS
REPLY TO PAUL MAXIM RE: MENSA & ISPE
REPLY TO RON HOEFLIN ON FREE WILL
REPLY TO CHRIS LANGAN
Ii REPLY TO ROBERT DICK ON PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATION
REPLY TO ROBERT DICK ON THE STATE OF THE EARTH
REPLY TO PAUL MAXIM ON THE LAIT
TO BECOME A GENERALIST

INCHOATE DIVAGATIONS BY RICHARD MAY

TWO LETTERS AND A TELESCOPE ARTICLE FROM CHRIS HARDING
CHESS PROBLEMS BY JEFF WARD.)
+(YOU CAN ININ A FREE YEAR OF NOESIS, WHICH, AT THE CURRENT
RATE OF PUBLICATION, MEANS THE REST OF THE MILLENIUM)
BIRD DRAWINGS BY CELIA MANOLESCO