My “activity” guide keeps saying there’s something new on this thread, but I don’t see it. If I may, though, a few observations on it:
1) You had to be smart to ask this question, but only people who feel they have successfully gauged intelligence would presume to answer it. (Just using the word “gauge”—and spelling it correctly—attracted many of the Flutherers who fit that criterion; nicely asked!)
2) Obviously, gauging intelligence is important to you, as it is to me, in matters of everyday life. But how much can intelligence really matter in the overall scheme of things? Height and physical beauty seem to be more selected-for, genetically speaking; and even among the small group that selects for intelligence, the reproduction rate is low compared to that of the unintelligent. BTW, we should never underestimate the capacity for violence of a large population of strong, stupid people—or their fear of the intelligent.
3) One big difference between intelligent and unintelligent is that the smart person theoretically can pretend to be stupid, but the stupid person can’t pretend to be smart. One post here advocates that as a strategy, but how do you actually do it? How do you hide intelligence?
4) And if it can be done, then how can you tell when someone who seems stupid is merely pretending? The answer could be important to anyone desirous of knowing how the US government can possibly do some of the things it’s considering.