Author: Fernando Villegas
Date: 12:40:46 04/25/98
Go up one level in this thread
On April 25, 1998 at 13:25:57, Don Dailey wrote: >On April 25, 1998 at 11:17:47, mick adams wrote: > >>It seems to me fairly academic, that if, Judit Polgar were to play Bobby >>Fischer in Reykjavic,right now,the outcome,would,indubitally(or without >>doubt)favour the male of the species,and why is this?Surely not because >>Judit is a female!No perhaps it is because,in Reykjavic the environement >>conspires against the human race,no right-minded turnip,would surely >>know the difference.Judit is fantastic! i love her,but you know so is >>Bobby,and he's all grown up,and i don't think he was designed upon to >>the same extent as sister POLGAR.If,Judit becomes peregnant,her cute >>play agin masters of the ilk of Korchnoi,will be seen in true >>light.micky. > >I beg to differ, but it seems highly unlikely that the current Bobby >Fischer could win a match against Judit Polgar. I haven't been >following >this thread so I hope my comment is not out of context somehow. > >But since I'm here, I might as well throw my 2 cents in and hope these >comments are not out of context. I believe it is likely (after >sorting >out millions of environmental factors) that men and women are not >exactly >the same intellectually. Based on Judit's performance the evidence is >on the side of female superiority at chess. I'm basing this on the fact >that percentage-wise, VERY FEW women persue chess compared to men. This >of course is not a strong case because there are many arguments that >could >be offered as to why this is so. But I've always prefered hard >evidence >over lot's of speculation which I've learned over the years is quite >unreliable. > >My gut intuition (which I rarely trust) is that neither sex has a basic >inherited advantage (on the average) over the other. I strongly suspect >both sexes bring (again this is a broad generalization that only applies >to the average, not individual case) their own strengths and weaknesses >to the game. > >But surely if there turned out to be a sex advantage in chess for one >side >over the other it must be so small as to be practically immeasurable. > >But isn't it best just to judge each person on his own merit? After >all, >who of us in this newsgroup has any chance whatsoever against Judit >Polgar? > >- Don Hi Don: This thread begun with a question about why women almost does not appear in this field of computer chess and then I posted saying that maybe was necesary to take into account the statiscal fact that women tends to appear in increasingly LESS percentage of the samples as much as you go to the extremes of the IQ curve. My supposition was -and is- that there are some activities that tends to require a high degree of gusto for intellectual perfomance AND that this last gusto is associated with high IQ. So, as much as less women have high IQ than men -although in both sexes the percentage is small respect to all population-, then it follows naturally that a minor portion of women will appears interested in chess and programming. But, of course, if for any reason a woman is anyway interested and is there, chess os science, no matter what, of course you cannot do any conclusion about her ability and capacity with respect to any other chess player or scientist, male or female. I think that this line of thought is logical and baeed in facts of statistics and common experiebnce of any of us. Now: a) That does not mean that no women can have hight IQ, performs in sciences, etc. b) Does no means, either, that IQ is the only criteria to measure mental perfomance. c) Less that I was beginning a sexist movement. Nevertheless, i was shot from all sides. As Bruce said, this is sensible issue that better not to touch anyway and he is right in that. Nevrtheless, recognizing my lack of tact, I would insist that no matter what can be said to create a feeling of equality, facts are facts; women does not appears in force in this and other fields where high intellectual effort and perfomance is needed. Of course, maybe that does not matter at all. As many has done here, you can write a filosophy about all this and make an speech about human rights, broterhood, etc. I wellingly subscribe all thta filosophy, but...
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