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Milty's Mag, September 1941

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Milty's Mag Page four

That sentence is an important one. It is the reason I can't write a superman article.

Because no psychologist knows what characteristics, traits, or abilities are determined by the genes and chromosomes. Anastasia says, in Differential Psychology, "Traits and activities cannot be classified into those which are inherited and those which are acquired. The problem thus resolves itself into a determination of the relative contribution of heredity and environmental factors in the development of the individual."

While psychologists spend the next several hundred years determining this accurately, we may twiddle our thumbs and speculate.

There is, however, a simple rule which we may use for generalizations: The lower down in the brain a certain act originates from, the more heredity takes part in that act; the higher up in the brain an act originates from, the more environment takes part in that set. The simplest example is speech. You inherit the ability to speak, but your environment determines the language you speak. (Also the language in which you think, which has a definite affect on the manner of thinking.)

To return to our original question, we may phrase the answer in light of what we have said concerning the distribution of traits. Superman is divided into two parts. The first, which we may call Superior Men, possesses the same traits as Homo Sapiens, but possesses certain of them to an abnormal degree. The second, called Superman, possesses an entirely new trait.

There are various qualifications to this definition. First, there are already in existence a great many Superior Men, in the broad sense of the term. The mathematical wizards, the musical geniuses, the memory geniuses, etc., who have one ability developed to an abnormal degree, but who may be idiots as far as the remaining abilities are concerned. Could there be a man with a certain, well-balanced combination of abilities developed to an abnormal degree, then we would have a real Superior Man.

Anastasi, on this point, notes that while idiots sevents [savants] may be found in every time of mental activity, they are completely absent from the field of verbal ability, because of the fact that verbal ability is highly correlated with "general intelligence." (Any idiot savant is one who has low "general intelligence" but has one greatly developed ability.)

So it appears that verbal ability is the clue to what we want. Let us look at some more traits which may be used as a measure of "intelligence." I find that a high intelligence appears to be correlated with an ability to perceive. "Perception" being used in the psychological sense of relating an observed fact to other facts known by past experience. For example, the work I do at the office is performed on printed forms, upon which is noted whatever action is taken on the case at any time. These cases sometimes remain in the pending file for over a year, and many complicated things are done to them. It is my opinion that the ability to take a look at one of those cases and figure out what has happened to that case in the past year is a measure of intelligence, other things, such as experience and

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Milty's Mag Page four That sentence is an important one. It is the reason I can't write a superman article. Because no psychologist knows what characteristics, traits, or abilities are determined by the genes and chromosomes. Anastasia says, in Differential Psychology, "Traits and activities cannot be classified into those which are inherited and those which are acquired. The problem thus resolves itself into a determination of the relative contribution of heredity and environmental factors in the development of the individual." While psychologists spend the next several hundred years determining this accurately, we may twiddle our thumbs and speculate. There is, however, a simple rule which we may use for generalizations: The lower down in the brain a certain act originates from, the more heredity takes part in that act; the higher up in the brain an act originates from, the more environment takes part in that set. The simplest example is speech. You inherit the ability to speak, but your environment determines the language you speak. (Also the language in which you think, which has a definite affect on the manner of thinking.) To return to our original question, we may phrase the answer in light of what we have said concerning the distribution of traits. Superman is divided into two parts. The first, which we may call Superior Men, possesses the same traits as Homo Sapiens, but possesses certain of them to an abnormal degree. The second, called Superman, possesses an entirely new trait. There are various qualifications to this definition. First, there are already in existence a great many Superior Men, in the broad sense of the term. The mathematical wizards, the musical geniuses, the memory geniuses, etc., who have one ability developed to an abnormal degree, but who may be idiots as far as the remaining abilities are concerned. Could there be a man with a certain, well-balanced combination of abilities developed to an abnormal degree, then we would have a real Superior Man. Anastasi, on this point, notes that while idiots sevents [savants] may be found in every time of mental activity, they are completely absent from the field of verbal ability, because of the fact that verbal ability is highly correlated with "general intelligence." (Any idiot savant is one who has low "general intelligence" but has one greatly developed ability.) So it appears that verbal ability is the clue to what we want. Let us look at some more traits which may be used as a measure of "intelligence." I find that a high intelligence appears to be correlated with an ability to perceive. "Perception" being used in the psychological sense of relating an observed fact to other facts known by past experience. For example, the work I do at the office is performed on printed forms, upon which is noted whatever action is taken on the case at any time. These cases sometimes remain in the pending file for over a year, and many complicated things are done to them. It is my opinion that the ability to take a look at one of those cases and figure out what has happened to that case in the past year is a measure of intelligence, other things, such as experience and