Originally Posted by Donovan
I feel like poker players are a very intelligent group of people overall and that the type of players who frequent forums like this one ought to be an even more level headed and realistic group of logical thinkers. So I thought it would be interesting to toss out a list of questions that are similar to (some of them identical) the ones I put on FB recently just to stir up some ****spa and because i thought it was extreemely interesting to see how various people answered these questions.
This is just a very simple little list. No essay answers or story problems and no math. Just quick little questions that assess, if not an actual level of intelligence, at least the degree to which you agree or don't agree with, well,.. ME.
Please feel free to PM the answers to these if you want to, and skip any questions you don't want to answer.
I will go into more depth about what my motivation for posting this was after I get some input.
I am not saying which position I take on any of this stuff but let's just say I believe in being extremely open minded, just not so open minded that your brain falls out.
And I am a romantic person by nature but try to think logically and romanticize matters of fact.
I would love it if you took the time to shoot back some answers to these if you aren't too scared about your reputation and/or pissing in someone's cheerios.
SO, HERE WE GO;
IN YOUR OPINION:
1) Is the electoral college useful and efficient or is it an antiquated relic that has outlived it's reasons for existing in the first place?
No it's a bs system that will never achieve anything but the mockery of the concept behind it. It's patently undemocratic and worthless cosmetic mechanism. If it couldn't function to block Trump then who...Also it doesn't represent people and states properly and fairly according to the true interests of the country and the relevance of every region.
2) Do you think that voting for the president of the US is a useful pursuit or is it a waste of your time? (I don't mean to ask if you think you have a morale obligation to vote and I hope you can set aside any ideas about being able to say you voted as adding value to the activity itself. I am asking from a practical perspective, if you had time to either cast your vote for the Next President of the US or run some kind of errand that would take ~ the same amount of time, which is a better use of your time?) Also realize I am speaking specifically about voting for the President. Assume you have absolutely no opinion on any of the local issues from wherever you live but you are only really interested in who gets elected into the White House. Would you make the time in a busy schedule to cast a vote for just the President.
Absolutely it's useful. You use it to prevent the worse of several evils typically but still it's better than the morons electing a fellow moron (plus you vote for other things too then) . Of course it doesn't work always but this is precisely because some morons didn't go out to vote to prevent mega-loser-morons from landing the position.
3) Do you believe that the country you live in is the "best country in the world?"
Of course not! But it has the best potential from all of them if it gets it right and has natural resources, kick ass landscapes and very impressive inspiring nature and a multicultural unification paradigm for the future of the planet . It will be the best if it listens to me a bit more often! Plus it has a flag in the moon. Bring it!
4) If we had the technology to use some sort of temporal teleportation machine to snatch Bruce Lee out of history while he was in his physical prime and we took him from his place in time into the modern day world with MMA as more or less a mainstream sport, do you believe that Bruce Lee would be able to hold his own against some of the best fighters in his weight class in, say, the Ultimate Fighting Championship?
(Let's say that he has a couple months to train and prepare but he has to use his own methods and train only techniques and the style of fighting he would have used in his time period? Or, you could look at it another way. If you took the best fighter in the UFC today at Bruce Lee's weight and you sent the fighter back in time to challenge Bruce Lee to an MMA "title fight" of some sort, would Bruce Lee be able to win or at least be a worthy adversary or do you think that Bruce Lee would have no real chance at beating a modern day MMA fighter??
Not very educated in the matters to answer properly but likely no he couldn't hold well. Things advance and there are many more today trying to advance them.
5) What would happen to Stu Ungers bankroll if we were able to use the Bruce Lee time travel method to pull him out of his peek and into the modern day poker landscape?
Could Stu Ungar, at his very best, beat the medium stakes or even high stakes NLH online games of today?
He would still waste it on bs activities. He would be ok good top player but not the best.
6) Does "Free Will" exist in the way it is usually thought of? Does the universe work in a predetermined manner and are we all just puppets tied to the strings of heredity and nurture? Are human beings inexorably controlled by the laws of cause and effect or is there something like a will that is free that allows people to act in ways that defy their nature and rise above the programming of nature and nurture? Can we act against our own self interest in a real way? Or can human beings only do whatever it is that they were always predestined to do?
Is there "real Free will?" Or is there only the "Delusion of Free Will?"
Delusion is all there is. Will exists but isn't free because nothing is free from the totality of interactions and consequences around it from all else. But it does own some of the luck generated within its physical boundary (the development of which of course was never owned by the individual) and affects other things.
Nothing is written. All has to exist to build more wisdom. Nothing is futile.
7) Are unions good for the free market or are they bad for our economy just in general and/or on balance?
They are both bad and good all the time. There are morons on the side of rich, poor and middle. Always. In scientific society they are good though.
8) Do you think that affirmative action is a useful, fair, correct, and responsible way to handle our current state of affairs? Should members of cultures who have historically gotten the short end of the stick and who are, even today, still suffering from the unfair treatment of their eldest living relatives and recent ancestors be given a bit of help in modern society? Should the deck be stacked in favor of the people today who come out of socio economic situations traditionally discriminated against?
For example, should there be quotas and necessary "diversity hires" and/or government subsidies that give employers incentives to, well.. scratch that.. very simply; On the subject of affirmative action.. Does America do too much, not enough, and is it done in a reasonably defensible way?
I dont believe in broad affirmative action. I believe in helping minorities have the same chances at some fundamental level that affects employment. Maybe some form of affirmative action is to be encouraged in terms of training groups of people that are not experienced in job hunting and skills and need a bit of coordination etc. Help them and then let them win on their own. Maybe even some light form of affirmative action that when it fails to work in terms of quality and improve to certain quality standards of performance it is only temporary in effect. Get the chance but then rise to it. Otherwise sorry better skill should win no matter what this is coming from if ethical and obeying the rules properly.
9) Do you believe that gender is a social construct or do you believe there is a biological basis for male and female sexes?
Of course there is a biological basis. XY vs XX not the same system fundamentally. Not relevant for many tasks but still there.
10) Would you think that blind people probably hear better than sighted people?
Yes they pay more attention to this channel of information and the brain uses it probably better to improve the condition.
11) Are smaller and less athletic men typically more intelligent than bigger more athletic ones?
Not likely to be true. Less athletic are probably smarter though than those obsessed with their body. There is so much to learn out there . Who the f has time for bs gym for many hours per week. But its ok to have it if you can make it part of a schedule that helps your mood , health and ideas. Scientific society will find a smart way to exercise in a pleasurable, useful manner.
12) Should Marijuana be illegal? Legal for medical? Every bit as legal as tobacco and alcohol?
Should be legal and those using it for fun other than a couple times to see whats about are morons. If it helps with certain conditions its ok i suppose.
13) Do you believe that marijuana is a "gateway drug" that makes it more likely that you do heroine at some point in the future if you smoke it now?
No idea. Probably not true. But trying both can have a common origin in that person.
14) Do you think that being a vegan is a morally superior choice when compared with more common and more traditional diets?
No its ridiculously stupid to go to the extreme when you can play it smarter. So play it smarter with better diet that covers everything.
15) If you knew for a fact that your ceasing to eat meat for the rest of your entire life would lead to exactly zero animals being saved and have no measurable, in fact no actual affect on the planet..the same number of animals die if you do or don't eat meat on the same number of farms with the same number of EVERY THING.. would you feel like you have no reason to not eat meat and, at least at the point you discover that you can have no harmful or positive impact on the world with regard to your meat consumption would you feel morally "off the hook" or would you still feel responsible for the torture of and killing of factory farmed animals?
No i dont believe in this. If i don't eat the food there will be less demand so of course i cause their deaths at some point over lifetime. Its a problem to find better ways to kill them and to eventually have a world that synthetic protein is superior in taste and quality. We will get there by eating them for the time being and keeping busy in bringing scientific society to life.
16) Do you think it is a noble and worthwhile pursuit to try and keep foreign people out of your country so that there are more and better jobs for you and your friends, family, and countrymen? Or do you think that your geographical neighbors should have just as much right to the things you have in the country you were born in?
No its not noble. But dont accept all kinds of people that eventually dont assimilate properly and bring their problems to a system that didnt have them. Accept only those that care for the country and the culture and do not culturally invade it and are in your face look i am different than you all. That is hard to define at entry but you can introduce methods to get there naturally by filtering who gets easier access. You need smart and educated people to enter if possible. Or you need people that care to take a chance and show progress with it coming from a weaker position but high courage and motivation and love for the new country. Again the hell with cultural invasions. Embrace the new culture and bring the best parts of yours but do not settle and make it a small part of your old country refusing to embrace the broad culture. And learn the bloody language and the history of the place while at it lol!
17) Are women able to do everything that men are able to do?
Of course not for both sides. Of course for most things its no measurable difference.
18) Do you find it at least believable or maybe even likely that there would be a correlation between liberal values and high IQ? Would you buy that studies have shown that the higher your IQ the less racist and sexist and bigoted your views tend to be? And that the lower your IQ the more likely you are to be more conservative? Would those results be believable? Shocking? or obvious to you?
I think there is correlation. But you can have smart and stupid people in both. I would say that the very intelligent and well educated tend to not be republican for sure though in US. For sure!!! That doesnt mean that you cant have smart people in both groups. Thats probably because they are betrayed by both systems and choose on cultural or personal ethics level rather than what is overal good for the country which has absolutely nothing to do with the republican megamorons in politics. Very smart people tend also to not be pseudo socialists in Europe either but still unhappy with the conservatives there because they too are morons making pseudo socialists the "good guys" on a number of superficial issues so that they can then do more damage to the system by winning close elections. A high IQ person that is well educated ought to be conservative in certain things that have worked and are hard to ignore and progressive on all kinds of reasonable fair issues that one can change their minds later about without having lost a ton of things if wrong.
19) Do you think it is likely that IQ is at least somewhat predictable based on race? That, if it were put to the test and studied, you would be likely to find a genetic basis for intelligence and that some races and ethnicity would probably score higher on IQ tests and other good measurements for general levels of intelligence? Or do you think that it is very likely that all races, ethnic backgrounds, and nations of origins would test out equally with no meaningful correlation between one and the other race or races? (BTW: I am not even implying what those hypothetical differences might be. I'm just asking if you think it is likely the case that some races have higher IQ's than others on average or that there is almost certainly no measurable difference of mathematical significance?
There are small differences on averages. I expect most to go away if people are raised in similar environment and offered same opportunities at youth. So no such thing as superior race etc (but maybe partially selectively yes on cultures - so take the best from all). I fully expect big differences in certain things on the very extremes of the distributions (eg super high rare levels) because of different standard deviation that is to be expected in groups that have been separated well for thousands of years in different environments. At any given point in time the smarter (in some metric) person in a group can be of any race/origin/sex, etc. Probabilities for that can be different though and not expecting it is not reasonable. Over time with mixing all these will go away likely.
20) Do you think psychics are real? Would you guess that some people have measurable levels of some kind of ESP or 6th sense type ability? Or is that all 100% BS?
BS 99.9999...%
21) Should psychodelic drugs be illegal? Legal in cases where there is a medical benefit? Fully legalized in so far as there is no harm done or risk placed on others?
I dont care. Make them legal only in scientific society where they will be attempted with care and under control of consequences.
22) Do you have a religion that you believe is definitely true, i mean to ask if you believe everything about the doctrine that you consider the doctrine of your sect/denomination, etc..?
No. Only culturally and somewhat philosophically affiliated with one.
23) would you describe yourself as republican, democrat, libertarian, leaning right, left leaning, or none of the above?
leaning scientific society and as far away from republicans as possible until they reclaim their dignity and proper conservative values from the bs they have going for decades now... I wish dems were better than they are at many things though. Its easier to fix them.
24) do you believe IQ and school performance are highly correlated, slightly correlated, not at all correlated, or even have a reverse correlation?
Yes of course. You cannot stop high intelligence, it will find its way to greatness. It may have some problems with bs systems of education but for the most part with good teachers it will shine.
25) Are religious people typically more, less, or equally morale and "good" in their interactions with others and their values?
It's whatever random you can imagine. The more dogmatic religious the more idiotic and superficial on ethics probably. Only the very intelligent and very deeply educated are probably more ethical people or at least more honest and aware about themselves with the potential for greater ethics.
I'm super excited to read the responses to these.
