Is high intelligence a birth defect? Is it a mutation that attempts to rectify itself?

Question

I ask this because highly intelligent people seem to be socially inept, in our modern society, thus leading to a reduced likelihood of procreation. It seems that a barrier is placed on intelligent people that prevents them from going around producing lots of bright kids.

Answer 1

I think it is more of a social thing in our culture. Generally high intelligence makes the smarter person more selective in the breeding process and the only reason that these people are shunned in society is that our current social structure is constantly seeking ways to celebrate mediocrity.

When you were growing up, did you have a celebration for graduating kindergarten? I certainly didn't. If I didn't graduate, my parents would have just beat me and taken away privelages. Now we find ways to award our kids for not screwing up, rather than for doing anything truly excellent. This is very unfortunate, as it will lead our culture to produce droves of socially adequate yet completely incompetent children. The barrier you speak of certainly exists, but not because it is a defect more than a curse in a twisted society.

Answer 2

I would call it more of a gift & a curse rather than a dead-end genetic mutation. Me being a person like those you describe, It really is hard to cope this way. I often have a hard time feeling comfortable in social situations, and I have a seperated feeling when it comes to the other 99% of the world. I sometimes wish to be a hermit just to get away, but I fail to grasp even the simplest concepts of common sense. I constantly forget everyday things and memories fade in & out of my mind all of the time. I can barely remember half of my childhood now.

Even though I feel this way, I think there is some reason why I am this way. I did some research (coincidentally what Im good at) and I found some famous people past and present that felt and thought the same way I do. Among these people are Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and even Hannibal the Carthagenian General. All of them were geniuses in their fields. They all also suffered from very slight insanity. Einstein was unable to live by himself, and Tesla lived a lonely life inventing machines as a hernit.

Answer 3

I don't think that high intelligence is a mutation. However, it will be difficult for a highly intelligent person to adapt well into society, so he/she should be recognized as different as early in life as possible and should receive proper education and treatment best suited to his/her characteristics. I say that because high intelligence is mostly accompanied by some psycological problems such as obsessive compılsive disorders, general anxiety disorders, etc. The highly analytical brain may cause these problems, that is my observation, not a scientific fact.
So, as many highlt intelligent people go undetected at early years of their lives, they may end up being very intelligent, but miserable, unable to produce bright kids because of not being able to sustain a successful/consistent relationship with a partner.

Answer 4

defect implies that there is a problem that somehow hinders one's livelihood. This question seems to imply that intelligent people are, as a rule, nerds, and repelling to others in society. This is not true. there is a difference between personality and intelligence, and plenty of chairsmatic people who are intelligent have children. Also, the raising of a child has a huge factor. Low income parents who barely made it through high school can raise a polyglot son.

To say that high or low intelligence is soley based upon genetics, then the simple bringing up of procreation and correction of "incorrect" genes can lead to misdirected elitism.

Answer 5

It is not a birth defect it is a normal end of a spectrum of learning abilities. There is not a social barrier preventing them from doing a thing. The problem is schools latched onto them and steer them into academics or accellerated classes. They were forced into groups of people they had no commonality with other than academics. There is IQ (Intelligence) EQ (Emotional) and SQ (Social) Education is realizing all three are important and are now less likely to accellerate the brilliant just on that alone. Instead of being removed from their peers they need to be with them to get the other two .

Answer 6

I don't believe it's a birth defect.

Sometimes Intelligent people don't know how to relate to people not as smart as themselves. We also tend to not have as much common sense as others since we operate differently.

Also, it's just that we don't feel comfortable sometimes around people that are definitely not as smart as us. We have a bunch of stupid people in Atlanta (watch them drive).

Answer 7

If that were so, no braniacs would ever have kids. Yet, somehow even the geekiest seem to "hook up" with SOMEONE, no matter how socially "inept".

Answer 8

are they socially inept because they are intelligent... or are they intelligent because they are socially inept??

Answer 9

I bet you have a lot of friends.