Wednesday 4 June 2014

International Society for Intelligence Research

 

http://www.isironline.org/

Clicking on the link above takes you to the new, improved website, and gives you details of the next conference in Austria in December.

I am a member, but not an agent for this society, so I can give you the low-down. Conferences last for about three days, and begin at 8 am in the morning, and go on to about 6 pm at night. Barbaric, I agree.

At these events you will find the world’s leading researchers on intelligence. It is engaging to watch researchers of very different backgrounds and opinions arguing their cases and having coffee and planning work together. They are not of one mind.  Some researchers agree with other researchers on some topics but not on others. Strong hereditarians meet strong environmentalists with relatively little fuss, though sometimes the wine intake increases a bit. Invited guests cover the whole spectrum of views and subject areas within intelligence research.

There is a flourishing new generation rapidly replacing what had sometimes (a decade or so ago) looked like becoming a retired professors club. There are prizes for the best student paper. At the other end of the life cycle, there are lifetime achievement awards, but sadly no lifetime non-achievement awards, a lapse I back as a matter of principle.

Don’t know much about Austria. Yodelling, I think.

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