ClaimsEliezer Yudkowsky

“Spearman’s g is a statistical abstraction from individual differences of intelligence between humans, who as a species are far more intelligent than lizards.”

Eliezer Yudkowsky, author 2008 Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk (MIRI)

Factual Science and research methods

Spearman's g is a statistical abstraction from individual differences in intelligence among humans, a species far more intelligent than lizards.

Not researched Checkable, but outside the sample that was researched.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

Cite this claim

Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Spearman's g is a statistical abstraction from individual differences in intelligence among humans, a species far more intelligent than lizards.” (said 2008). Verdict: not researched. Reliability API, claim c_99ed9352f2d4, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_99ed9352f2d4

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Eliezer Yudkowsky, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Eliezer Yudkowsky

  1. Mostly true Factual September 2025
    “And that in turn provided a lot of indirect support for the atomic theory.”

    Conservation of mass provided a lot of indirect support for atomic theory.

  2. Mostly true Factual September 2025
    “The conservation of mass was one of the first hints that things were being rearranged rather than created or destroyed.”

    The conservation of mass was one of the first hints that things are rearranged rather than created or destroyed.

  3. Resolved true Factual September 2025
    “The way that if you burn something inside a sealed glass vessel, it didn't change weight.”

    Burning a substance inside a sealed glass vessel does not change the total weight.

  4. Mostly true Factual 26 December 2020
    “that ignorance is a mental rather than physical property.”

    E. T. Jaynes said many times that probability is ignorance and that ignorance is a mental rather than physical property, and Yudkowsky repeated this often.

  5. Mixed Factual 2008
    “General intelligence is a between-species difference, a complex adaptation, and a human universal found in all known cultures.”

    General intelligence is a between-species difference, a complex adaptation, and a human universal found in all known cultures.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.