Slashdot Mirror
US Intelligence Wants Tools To Tell: Who's the Smartest of Them All?
coondoggie writes Can a tool or technology be applied to the brain and accurately predict out of a given group of people who will be the smartest? The research arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is looking for exactly those kinds of tools."IARPA is looking to get a handle on the state of the art in brain-based predictors of future cognitive performance. In particular, IARPA is interested in non-invasive analyses of brain structure and/or function that can be used to predict who will best learn complex skills and accomplish tasks within real-world environments, and with outcome measures, that are relevant to national security.
That's a fact.
Obviously intelligence varies from person to person and we have tests like IQ tests that can measure this
but IQ tests are not super good at measuring people who are successful at accomplishing tasks because
it takes more than raw intelligence. Things like willpower, dedication, creativity, work ethic, etc... all play
into whether someone is successful at accomplishing tasks. I don't see how a brain scanner is going to
accomplish this or how it would be any better than existing testing methods. If I wanted to know this I
would be more inclined to give a group of people a ton of different types of tests and then watch their
career and decide which of the tests more closely correlated with what I was seeking then I could narrow
it down to a combination of traits for instance maybe the results would be high IQ, high creativity, and
high level of willpower or some other combination of 3 or 4 attributes then you could test for only those
3-4 attributes instead of dozen of attributes. If you didn't want to wait, you could instead give the same
battery of tests to the people in your company that you considered most successful and see if there are
any patterns.
National security is worrying about terrorists in countries 7000 miles away across the ocean but leaving the southern gate wide open.
"the protection and preservation of existing power inequalities"
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
committed suicide realizing the futility of modern existance. Or: switched off their brains either through force of will or substance abuse in order to better conform to society's expectations and be able to hold that crappy 9-5 they needed to actually eat.
While I'm sure there are plenty who succeed, if you're not a big arrogant or sociopathic it doesn't seem likely you'll make it far in this world. Well, unless you've got a sociopath 'managing' you.