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Status Reports
Status: HiQ (2020 - September)
(Text as at 04/10/2020 00:27:22)
(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)
As this project is substantially in abeyance, this report is mostly generated automatically, with minor textual additions at the end of each academic year.
Rationale for this Project- I was very active in Mensa and ISPE in the years prior to taking up formal study of philosophy at Birkbeck in 2000. Thereafter I was too busy, and no longer felt the need to contribute, so I let my memberships lapse.
- When I retired from HSBC at the end of 2010, and given that I was no longer involved in formal academic study, I re-joined both societies for a year to see how things were going, but then let my memberships lapse again.
- ISPE seemed no better than when I was involved last time. The Mensa SIGs seem active enough, but I didn’t have the time to contribute.
- I re-joined ISPE1 yet again for the calendar year 2017, to see what was going on, and renewed for 2018. Membership is cheaper – at $40 / year – now Telicom is electronic, so I’ve let my membership continue.
- Society Details:-
- For Mensa – see Mensa. In 2010 I joined, or re-joined, a bundle of societies, but did nothing.
- For ISPE – see ISPE. Since re-joining I have done nothing other than pay my dues and exchange friendly emails with a couple of old contacts.
- For a site2 giving details of the various tests, and other Hi-Q information, see Uncommonly Difficult IQ Tests. The site doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2006.
- See High-IQ Societies and their Tests for a site that gives the admission tests used for entry to ISPE and peer and “higher” societies (and which refers to the defunct site mentioned in the footnote above-mentioned).
- Between 1997 and 2001 I edited a newsletter (Commensal - Past Issues) in my capacity as secretary of the Philosophical Discussion Group of British Mensa.
- I also edited Under the Sycamore Tree3: Correspondence Folder for the UK Members and Associates of ISPE for a year around about the same time.
- My intention has been to participate in these societies just so far as doing so would support my other projects by way of stimulation and the opportunity for interaction. As such, most of the time recorded against this project could equally be recorded against others.
Summary of Progress during July - September 2020- I spent 2.5 hours in 20Q3 on this Project, or related work (5 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2019). That's 19.2% of the planned effort (9.6% YTD). Overall, 0.4% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 0.2% YTD) - as against 1.9% planned (1.8% YTD).
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HiQ (Total Hours = 2.5)
Summary of Progress during October 2019 – September 2020 (YTD Activity4)- HiQ (Total Hours = 5)
- As can be seen from the list above, this project has been almost completely inactive over the last year. It will mostly remain so for the foreseeable future.
- For no good reason, other than that it’s there and was on my list of items to look into, I investigated Triple Nine Society. I had a quick look at entry requirements, and – while I scored 30 on the Mega Test – so comfortably met the 24-mark threshold – this was marginally after the January 1995 cut-off (I think - I'm not sure where I've filed the letter from Ron Hoeflin [see Wikipedia: Ronald K. Hoeflin]). They don't automatically accept members of comparable societies, so that's that. I didn't check out whether the society was worth joining.
- The Aeon article “The broad ragged cut5” by Svoboda was interesting.
- Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List6, and YTD in the current & future “automatic” editions of this report.
Plans for the Near Future: - Because of the need to focus on higher-priority projects, it is not possible to schedule much time on this project, but I have put down 1 hour / week as part of an over-stretched budget. We’ll see how it goes.
- So, if I do find the time, I’ll be looking into:-
- ISPE
- Sort through and review historical material,
- Investigate & take part in ISPE Ning. There's recently been some advertising of Zoom meetings.
- Read "ISPE - The Thousander",
- Read "ISPE - Telicom": The last print issue (Jan - Dec 2016) looks interesting as a starter.
- Investigate the controversies over IQ-testing, in particular read and review:-
→ "Gould (Stephen Jay) - The Mismeasure of Man",
→ "Herrnstein (Richard J.) & Murray (Charles) - The Bell Curve - Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life", and
→ "Devlin (Bernie), Fienberg (Stephen E.), Resnick (Daniel P.) & Roeder (Kathryn) - Intelligence, Genes & Success - Scientists Respond to The Bell Curve" - Consider submitting articles on my research to Telicom as a way of getting feedback.
Mensa Nothing planned.
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1: - All that ought to have been required was that I pay my dues, but because of a mix-up I was asked to sit the latest version of their test, which I did.
- I didn’t initially hear back – though I was re-instated OK. On chasing them up for the results I eventually got the response that “I’d passed with flying colours”, but no further details could be elicited.
- My rationale for the enquiry was set out in an email: “On the test itself – it’s similar to, though not the same as – the first one I took, and leaves me feeling similarly uncomfortable. Theory is massively underdetermined by data, so – in a sense – “it depends what you want”. It’d be possible – no doubt – to think more and more deeply and come up with more and more Byzantine reasons for excluding particular items. But how would I know this is what is wanted? It wasn’t until I got the same percentile on the (much more satisfying but now sadly compromised) Mega Test that I trusted the ISPE test at all (actually, I was surprised that I didn’t do better on the Mega Test, and an inquest revealed I’d made at least 3 howlers that more care would have avoided).”
Footnote 2: - The reference given in previous reports is defunct.
- I think this is the same basic site.
Footnote 3: Footnote 4: - As this project is substantially inactive, I don’t update the text quarterly as for the active projects, but only at the end of the academic year.
- If there are hours in the Plan, the Quarterly and YTD figures appear against that plan and are “as at” the end of the last Quarter.
- The YTD Activity-list is to make the end-year task easier, and to give a clearer idea of what – if anything – has been going on in the interim.
Printable Version:
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Text Colour Conventions
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