The Illusory Faces of Implicit Intelligence Policy

Abstract

The preceding chapters have initiated a search for truth regarding the influence of assumptions about intelligence on social policy. As is common among quests in which a singular truth is the goal, the discovery is made that the truth being sought is, in reality, multifaceted, complex, mercurial, controversial, and, above all, highly elusive. In keeping with this truism, implicit intelligence policy has many faces, although they are usually well-masked.

When three [now five] billion people are in a space ship hurtling into an unknown space in which dark stars may be on collision courses, with another ice age as the least of their impending domestic troubles, it behooves them to achieve some understanding and control of their environment as early as possible. The question is no longer the sybaritic one: “What balance of distribution of intelligence makes for a comfortable society? ” but rather, “How do we increase our resources of top-level intelligence to ensure man’s eventual survival? ”

Raymond B. Cattell [1]