Slashdot Mirror
'Older Fathers Have Geekier Sons' (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a BBC article: Men who delay starting a family are more likely to have "geekier" sons, a study suggests. They were brighter, more focused and less bothered about fitting in -- according to the "Geek Index" devised by King's College London. The mother's age had no impact, and daughters seemed to be immune. One scientist said a trend for delayed parenthood might mean we were heading towards a "society of geniuses" able to solve the world's problems. The findings are rare good news in the science of delayed fatherhood. Repeated studies have shown that older sperm is more prone to genetic errors and children are more likely to develop autism and schizophrenia.
Followed immediately by pointing out that men over 45 are virtually guaranteed to have autistic children.
Had my only child, a male child, at the age of 35. He is now 11 and is very much Dad's science geek.
Couldn't be prouder.
tired so the kids have to get smarter and play with themselves.
It would certainly explain these results.
Correlation? More like a tautology.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Funny how the same political party that screams about that, is also the same one that wants to cut all family planning assistance to Africa.
The older you are when you have kids, the more you are earning, the more disposable income you (and your parents or in-laws) can spend on quality toys and activities, instead of just trying to keep the heat on and food on the table. Also you're probably more educated, so there's that.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
I was reading this on a plane last night, and it turns out that Oscar Wilde's comments on women and men and how they differ seem poignant here.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
"Geekier dads could be taking longer to start a family and pass on geeky traits to their children"
My father found me to be a disappointment. He could never understood why I wasn't interested in cars and more interested in computers. As I would explained to him many years later, my older brother (not his son) was analog and I was digital.
Guess you don't see how others can find that to be a racist, genocidal solution to the problem.
I happen to be pro-choice, but pro-life people would read that as you arguing to solve the migration problem with genocide.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
"One scientist said a trend for delayed parenthood might mean we were heading towards a "society of geniuses" able to solve the world's problems."
That is the funniest thing I've read today. Hilarious!
-- Cheers!
Geeks by another name.
which will be over-run by immigrants in Europe.
Geniuses solve problems. They don't sit around and whine about them
Multiple genetic studies showed that older fathers correspond to higher genetic load (this is bad) for all offspring.
Given that "reasoning adults" don't seem to be able to override the natural urge to not put one's dick away, apparently more is required.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
When do smart dads have kids? Later, when they're ready. When do autistic dads have kids? Later, when their successes outweigh their drawbacks, and they've learned to compensate. What sort of kids do dads have when they reproduce later? Smart. Autistic. Like their dads. Cuz genetics. Which is not to say that this is the explanation. It's just to say that the 'conclusions' drawn by this study (at least as summarized) are ... let's say speculative at best.
On average each parent contributes 30 mutations to offspring. But fathers contribution is approximately one per year of age.
Geniuses solve problems. They don't sit around and whine about them
Welcome to Slashdot. I see you're new here.
because some people want to punish others to appease their invisible friend in the sky.
Facebook can do that to you!
Isn't America already overrun by immigrants from Europe? I mean, for the last few centuries ... Or do you mean recent immigrants?
One scientist said a trend for delayed parenthood might mean we were heading towards a "society of geniuses" able to solve the world's problems.
For solving many of the world's problems, traits like integrity may be more important than intelligence. For example, once you get above some basic threshold of intelligence, integrity is what you want for police and security work.
But, even for problems where the solution is accumulating more scientific knowledge, it's not clear that intelligence, per se, is the limiting factor. Certainly there's going to be a minimum threshold of intelligence that's necessary - even if you give them a million years, chimpanzees are unlikely to find a cure for cancer.
But, in many cases, knowledge can be accumulated incrementally - like water wearing away at rock. And, when you're really exploring the unknown, there's a strong element of luck - like buying lottery tickets or breaking open a huge pile of boulders to find a diamond in one of the boulders.
And, there are almost certainly plenty of people who have the genetic capability to make extraordinary scientific discoveries who never achieve their potential because of lack of education - or even lack of healthcare and basic nutrition.
Well said. I was going to post a similar comment.
Being bright, focused, and individualistic is a lot of fun, and those are the kind of folks I like to hang out with.
But solving the world's problems may require other talents and traits, in the social and organizational realms, that geeks may not be so well equipped for.
we suck at it, but we worry about it (and a lot of other things, we tend to be neurotic).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
of this.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Can't afford kids? Stop fucking.
Interesting. I wonder if you're asexual - that is, you don't need sex with anyone at all - in the same way that straight men have no need to have sex with other men.
Anyway, for many people sex is a fundamental need like eating or sleeping or going to the bathroom. Telling people not to have sex is like trying to solve a problem with the city sewer system by telling people to simple not to go to the bathroom within the city limits.
the kids have to get smarter and play with themselves.
That would explain why they need glasses, which places them higher on the "geek index".
Repeated studies have shown that older sperm is more prone to genetic errors and children are more likely to develop autism and schizophrenia.
I rarely have any sperm that are more than a day old.
Posting crap online is a waste of time.
"Stop posting online" is my assistance to you.
Someone had to do it.
All things being equal... anyone consider that maybe the old dads are just too old/fat to go play outside and prefer geeky indoor activities with their children?
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
4 sons, 2 daughters. My eldest daughter, who I had when I was 29, is autistic. My youngest daughter, who I had when I was 43, is 3-4 years ahead for her age at school. She's 5, can read, write (beautiful flowing, joined up writing) and taught me a word about grammar I didn't know yesterday. :-/
The "old sperm" stats don't stand up well with my offspring.
My boys are all geeks, just like their father. The eldest is 21 and the youngest is 1.
I caught the one year old brushing his teeth out of the toilet while his brother was peeing in it last week.
Last night, while mother was putting the other 3 in bed, he was playing under my desk chair while I was composing an email.
I became aware of a nasty smell in the room coming from below my chair and I could hear him smacking his lips.
He was eating his own shit out of his nappy (diaper).
I think he'll be the smartest of the 6, he not afraid to try anything....
Since the article does not actually settle on any causal relationship, just proposals, the only source of post-hoc bullshit is you.
Follow the path of Karl Marx
I follow the path of Groucho Marx.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Since you're not on Facebook, what did it for you?
That bunch that want you to worry about them and want you to call them by that name instead of Daash are only one of many players in a civil war on the other side of the planet from you. Your post is another little propaganda win for them.
They are evil pig fucking bastards but it's not worth giving them so much credit. They are playing you and playing the media to stir up enough hate so they can more easily recruit suckers to their gang. The "us and them" shit is playing right into their hands.
Older as in older than the chick they're banging, or older as in both are roughly the same more advanced age?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
There is a mounting body of research that it is not just genes that are passed on from parents to children but epigenetic markers as well. These markers affect gene expression and suppression and are just as important as the genes themselves. Unlike genes, they are constantly changing due to environmental pressures thus providing a mechanism to pass on a sort of genetic memory of the parents life experience which should help prepare their children for the conditions they are likely to encounter. Research has shown that a mother's traumatic experience during pregnancy goes on affect gene expression even in their grandchildren http://www.sciencemag.org/news...
Because in those areas kids are still what they used to be here before pension plans: A way to actually have a chance to survive when you're too old to work.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Had my eldest at 29 and he's pretty 'geeky' and loves science.
So do I, but the funny walk plays havoc with my knees.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Can't play with kids since they're too old and tired so the kids have to get smarter and play with themselves.
That really is an eye-wateringly daft thing to say. As anybody knows, who'se had the benefit of grandparents taking care of the children, children and grandparents get along extremely well, in general. Part of this is because older people often have more time than the actual parents, but a large part of it is down to the fact that as you get older and more mature, you also tend to become more tolerant, creative and interested. So, where a young father is mostly interested in sex, beer, football and sex, an older father is more likely to have got past the more infantile stage of adulthood and acquired some interests in life - which he can then share with his children.
Do you really imagine that a man of 40 to 50 is 'old and tired'? Well perhaps you will be, if all you do is lie around on a sofa wasting you time. Life starts at 40, as the saying goes, and what it means is, you still have loads of energy, and now you also have experience and purpose. Some things you simply don't know enough about to really do until you are mature.
That wasn't my experience. Worry about fitting in? Not really. I always had a few good friends growing up, and that was all I cared about. Even so, I learned to listen and not make an ass of myself, so existing in a room of strangers or vague acquaintances wasn't a problem for me. Sure, I had a few bullies to deal with, but most of them were poor souls who were themselves bullied and thought I would be an easy target. I wasn't. Neurotic? I believe I was less neurotic than the majority of my classmates who fretted over their popularity.
They were brighter, more focused and less bothered about fitting in -- according to the "Geek Index" devised by King's College London.
Maybe older dads care less about fitting in, and their kids learn to follow their own interests more. When I'm doing what I want I'm more focused because it holds my interest.
Nope, no sig
an alternative headline might be "Fathers who Spend More than Six Hours a Week with their Children Raise more Active and Stable Children".
of course that would piss off the Procrustean-egalitarian left, and it would outright terrify the "work 'em 'til they drop" business-friendly right.
so let's invent some totally bogus bullshit about telomeres and autism. wheeeee!
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
But doesn't the hairy palms cancel out the glasses on the geek scale?
anecdotally, my father who had me at 45 was more athletic than 90% of people half his age. I still turned out borderline autistic (kidding -- I think).
my dad has a similar personality though, so I don't know how conclusively we can talk about the role of age.
I suspect the theory in OP is valid, or that your father/parents have more time to raise you (i was using the internet by 4), or a combination of both. Athleticism seems like a stretch. Fat parents aren't having autistic genius children.
My parents also worked from home, which further corroborates the time argument. My dad also spent a lot of time teaching me how the world expects me to act and how to be socially successful. I think in a lot of cases that part is missing because the borderline-autistic-genius parent are themselves socially inept.
So do I, but the funny walk plays havoc with my knees.
Guess some Monty Python skits are out of the question then.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Mentioning Minnesota, do you mean the Somalis? They congregated in the Twin Cities area not because they were settled by decree, or because the climate was familiar, but because they liked the people here. I'm taking that as a compliment. They took a lot of the lower-level jobs. We had some difficulties with so many Somali cab drivers when some of them refused to carry people with alcoholic beverages, but that got smoothed out. The ones I've had interactions with have always been good people, and I think they're a good addition to the metro area. The kids seem to be learning English just fine, although of course some of the adults never will, and I haven't seen any problems from them.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes