Are the Chinese “smarter” than us?

My wife and I are watching the news. Tik Tok is all over the news this morning because the House is set to vote on banning it. (See my blog, My Prediction … Congress Won’t Ban It.) The main justification Congress persons use for banning Tik Tok is that Americans are too stupid to see past misinformation … especially kids. (Kids are defined as people from about age four or five to about age 30. Homo sapiens is differentiated from other species by a very long developmental period. Truth!)

My wife asked the question, “Are the Chinese smarter than us?”

Ah! Such a question! The answer can go in so many different directions!

First, we have to define the word “smart”. People often assume that, like in Alice in Wonderland, a word means precisely what they say it means. Unfortunately, the word “smart” does not. “Smart” could mean the ability to reason logically. Or remember great quantities of information. Or notice details that others miss. Or fit in perfectly with a tribal collective.

When I was in the Army, it turned out that an idiot savant was in my basic training company. The movie Rain Man was about one variant of this condition. This guy had difficulty tying his shoelaces, but he could multiply five digit numbers in his head instantly. It’s an uncommon, but documented condition. This guy ended up as an operator in a Washington D.C. computer center, but few people would define “smart” that way.

When the rest of us figured this out, we were able to use it to get out of training exercises. (Note to those who did not get drafted into the Army. These were always conducted by training sergeants, not our regular drill sergeants.) I would casually mention to one of the training sergeants that “Joe” over there could multiply five digit numbers in his head. The sergeant would have to check it out. That would take 15 minutes. Then he would have to tell his buddies who would also have to check it out. Once the process got started, my basic training company could flake out under trees and have a smoke. The ability to quickly adapt to new conditions has been an American cultural trait. But, unfortunately, the Vietnamese seemed to be better at it than we were during the Vietnam War.

I try to avoid “value loaded” words like “smart”. In my wife’s question, I would use the word, “different” and then the answer would be “Yes!”. Great civilizations are great because the normative behaviors of their culture match the requirements of their current environment. Rome, for example, was able to organize highly effective armies and implement technology advances. For example, building roads and aqueducts. But when these highly effective armies turned on each other and when Rome depended on recruiting soldiers from other cultures instead of from Rome itself … The end took a while, but it could have been predicted centuries before it happened.

I’m a big believer that Homo sapiens has very different cultures and different phenotypes too. It’s the main reason that constant warfare is present in all of our cultures. Centuries ago, the highly organized class structure and bureaucracy of imperial China made them the dominant culture in Asia. But the Mongols, with their violent and overpowering warfare, turned out to be more successful.

I’ve read books about how America’s emerging failure to educate and motivate our population has resulted in a culture that simply can’t compete with the lean and hungry populations of places like modern China and India. That could be. It’s certainly true that Asians score a lot better on standardized tests in things like math and science. But then, why is America’s economy the best in the world right now while both China and India are on the veritable economic ropes?

The first article of my religion is “I don’t know!” This is a great example. I don’t know, but I have strong opinions. Are the Chinese “smarter” than us? With the qualifications above, my answer is “No.” But it won’t matter. We’re all in the soup together and the soup is starting to boil.