Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

286 HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

precisely as a language for expressing the deeper structures and patterns
in phenomena— patterns that cannot be expressed very easily in ordinary
language. It is through such means that scientists reveal structures of na-
ture that remain hidden to other species and to prescientifi c humans. It
is the revelation of hidden structure, in all their harmonious composition,
that led Albert Einstein to declare that “ there is nothing more beautiful
than a good theory.” However, as mentioned in chapter 1, it is also part
of the culture of science to constantly identify and reassess its presup-
positions, especially their roots in social ideology.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Of course, science is itself a lesson about the potentials of humans. Who
would have thought that the beings of a hundred thousand years ago,
hunting with crude weapons; butchering with stone tools; and gathering
roots, plants and fruits by hand could transform themselves into exactly
the same species with the same genes we see today? What Vygostsky was
pointing out in his law of cultural development was that what a child can
do now, alone— oft en seen as an index of the child’s potential— can be
transformed by the cultural tools provided by parents, teachers, or more
capable peers.
In other words, potential is created by dynamical systems, not merely
expressed by individuals. Current status is not necessarily a good pre-
dictor of future status— unless of course individuals are artifi cially con-
strained to the same circumstances (and, under the power of ideology, they
usually are). If, as behavioral ge ne ticists claim, the human intelligence
system can be modeled as a simple quantitative trait, like height or weight,
then humans would still be confi ned to narrow niches, like the apes.

GIFTED, OR WHAT?

It is, of course, wonderful how the dynamical attractors of a culture are
assimilated into individual minds and then turned around as something
fresh and original. It is remarkable to see the speed and extent to which

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