Table Talk
I have often enjoyed conversations that could be labeled "food for thought". What better way to have these conversations than at a dining table. The mind is at utmost pleasure when it meets someone who challenges it, appreciates it and motivates it to strech. One such conversation made me to bring myself to write this post. Well! As all table conversations go..This one too was random and intense. I have sincerely tired to seek the best possible answers for our theories.
The question on the table was, Does climate influence/impacted the economic growth of nations, affected the native intelligence of people ? Yes it does! The brain, can best operate at colder environments. I choose to spend sometime later today looking at the pages on the International monetary fund, especially focusing on gross domestic products (GDP) of nations and their respective per capital income.
Before, I lay down the facts, it is interesting to note a couple of things. One of the things I looked into was the nations that form the G8 (Group of 8 developed nations). The esteemed group of developed nations comprises of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, U.S.A and the U.K. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that most of them exist in the Northern hemisphere. All these nations are advanced in terms of technology, innovation, research and house one of the most civilized and successful societies on the planet today.
13 nations lie on the equator, namely,Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo,Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonsia, Kiribati, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. Further more, most of the nations that lie on either side of the equator dont classify to be included in the top 25 nations in the world.
Most of those 25 nations seem to exist in the colder environments. I was curious to see per capital incomes and be able to coorelate them in terms of geographic location. I choose to list them based on the findings of the 2005 IMF report: Luxemborg, Norway, USA, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Canada, Austria, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Qatar, Finland, Belgium, Australia, Holland, Japan, Germany, UK, Sweden, France, Italy, Singapore ,U.A.E, Spain and Taiwan.
Does that mean, born in a nation automatically sets you up, automatically restricts your natural ability based on geographic orientation. It does imply that, doesn't it?
The human body operates at a very high temperature, 98 deg. F or 37 deg C. Now, when the human body is exposed to heat on top of this, efficiency to be productive has to drop because the body is constantly trying to engage in cooling its system. The analogy is similar to your laptop or PC, that constantly wants to run at an optimum temperature.
The conversation shifts to emerging markets. China seems to be a top player aiming to increase GDP by a whooping 45% by 2010.Singapore is another exception with a per capita GDP equal to that of the four largest West European countries.. The two other nations that made to the top 25 list included Qatar and U.A.E (thanks to their natural oil and natural gas reserves).
Why aren't nations from Central America or Africa or the Indian subcontinent represented? One possibility is that the climate has enabled efficient functioning of the brain. The other theory churned out was that as human migration happened, man was forced to think harder to survive in a colder environment and so that could have contributed to socio-economic success. The theory holds good here. Natural ability seems to favor people in a colder environment.
This motivates me to look for other answers, the origin of linguistics, formation of civilizations, the countries that has had the greatest contributions in theology, architecture, astronomy, arts. Do we have a pattern!
Within a given region, Do people living in a geographic location tend to do better? Being an Indian myself, We ( includes, cousin, uncle, aunt and yours truly) decided to debate if research programs across the world has more intake of north indian students compared to south indian students. Does Northen India, due to its proximity to the himalayas offer sustanance to our theory? Such debates usual are subject to intense speculation due to lack of statistical data to support. Does it have to do with settlement of Aryans along the ganges? Who knows?
Have to wait until lunch tomorrow i suppose...Would love to have you join us...now it would be labelled a pot luck! wouldn't it?
The question on the table was, Does climate influence/impacted the economic growth of nations, affected the native intelligence of people ? Yes it does! The brain, can best operate at colder environments. I choose to spend sometime later today looking at the pages on the International monetary fund, especially focusing on gross domestic products (GDP) of nations and their respective per capital income.
Before, I lay down the facts, it is interesting to note a couple of things. One of the things I looked into was the nations that form the G8 (Group of 8 developed nations). The esteemed group of developed nations comprises of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, U.S.A and the U.K. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that most of them exist in the Northern hemisphere. All these nations are advanced in terms of technology, innovation, research and house one of the most civilized and successful societies on the planet today.
13 nations lie on the equator, namely,Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo,Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonsia, Kiribati, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. Further more, most of the nations that lie on either side of the equator dont classify to be included in the top 25 nations in the world.
Most of those 25 nations seem to exist in the colder environments. I was curious to see per capital incomes and be able to coorelate them in terms of geographic location. I choose to list them based on the findings of the 2005 IMF report: Luxemborg, Norway, USA, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Canada, Austria, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Qatar, Finland, Belgium, Australia, Holland, Japan, Germany, UK, Sweden, France, Italy, Singapore ,U.A.E, Spain and Taiwan.
Does that mean, born in a nation automatically sets you up, automatically restricts your natural ability based on geographic orientation. It does imply that, doesn't it?
The human body operates at a very high temperature, 98 deg. F or 37 deg C. Now, when the human body is exposed to heat on top of this, efficiency to be productive has to drop because the body is constantly trying to engage in cooling its system. The analogy is similar to your laptop or PC, that constantly wants to run at an optimum temperature.
The conversation shifts to emerging markets. China seems to be a top player aiming to increase GDP by a whooping 45% by 2010.Singapore is another exception with a per capita GDP equal to that of the four largest West European countries.. The two other nations that made to the top 25 list included Qatar and U.A.E (thanks to their natural oil and natural gas reserves).
Why aren't nations from Central America or Africa or the Indian subcontinent represented? One possibility is that the climate has enabled efficient functioning of the brain. The other theory churned out was that as human migration happened, man was forced to think harder to survive in a colder environment and so that could have contributed to socio-economic success. The theory holds good here. Natural ability seems to favor people in a colder environment.
This motivates me to look for other answers, the origin of linguistics, formation of civilizations, the countries that has had the greatest contributions in theology, architecture, astronomy, arts. Do we have a pattern!
Within a given region, Do people living in a geographic location tend to do better? Being an Indian myself, We ( includes, cousin, uncle, aunt and yours truly) decided to debate if research programs across the world has more intake of north indian students compared to south indian students. Does Northen India, due to its proximity to the himalayas offer sustanance to our theory? Such debates usual are subject to intense speculation due to lack of statistical data to support. Does it have to do with settlement of Aryans along the ganges? Who knows?
Have to wait until lunch tomorrow i suppose...Would love to have you join us...now it would be labelled a pot luck! wouldn't it?
posted by Ashwin at 8:41 PM
4 Comments:
Ashwin,
You have put in an interesting point about colder nations doing well. Is that why offices are being put under air conditioning these days? ;). Kidding, if u see intellegent people had come from strong roots meaning those coming from strong orthodox heritage or religion. Jews, brahmins etc were highly intellgent.
Does one having strong cultural background effect one's intellegence?
Jews, Brahmins have highly principled habits too. Food habits, way they eat,etc. Brahmin's are vegetarians. Will a new born brahmin grown in non-brahmin habitat change his/her intellgence? Can food habits change one's intellegence?
Food can stimulate mind. As you know drumstick, fish, peanuts, etc can stimulate one's sexual desires. Thus can adoptation to a certain food habitat change or affect one's intellegence?
Charu
There have been studies done on race and intelligence. The links i have posted should give you some insight. Brahmins is more of a sect classified on the type of those class of people do. It maybe true, certain proteins will help develop a higher IQ but I strongly believe the association cannot be very strong.
For example, both Jews and Brahmins are a minority, but you have to go and see the number of nobel prize winners who are jewish. Check out the number of successful business owners who are jewish. I believe in this case, the genetic order dominates.
I strongly believe that Brahmins in india have one of the worst dietary plans. There isn't a dietary balanced achieved.
Infact, in terms of IQ, the Chinese are rated at the highest with an IQ of 130 while indians have an average IQ of 80.
Besides, I find this thought interesting, the cows and the goats are vegan. Would you call them more intelligent in the animal kingdom than the Lions and other meat eating species who need to plan and be aggressive for their survival.
It is true though that in the world, people who eat meat are generally more violent than non meat eaters.
Ashwin,
Your comparison between the laptop/PC with the human mind/body and the effect of climatic conditions is interesting.
Assuming you change the climatic conditions of the country would you think they would perform better.Wouldn't the culture of the country also play a crucial role in the progress or degress?
Svaathi
Svaathi
your question could be rephrased as, is there a jump in the IQ of people when they migrate from warmer to colder regions.
That is difficult to answer. Your brain functions by reinforcing neuronal networks. Learning happens rapidly at a fairly young age, so I guess the effects on degeneration maybe stronger than on IQ.
Formations of cultures are a result of the people that constitute that society. Cultures do have a stronger influence on personality and behavior. This is just one component of the IQ.
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