Grrl Power #1459 – Chemical Frenemies?
She likes him because he challenges her. And by “likes,” I mean she hasn’t killed him yet for challenging her. Or for being an arrogant ass.
No, the story about the MIT/CERN kid isn’t Deus’s backstory, but it apparently is a not-uncommon arc for child prodigies who grow up surrounded by a bunch of average brain types, then finally settle into some bleeding edge profession, and learn that they’re in the 50th percentile of the intelligencia 1%.
I think exponential intelligence is genuinely incomprehensible, because individuals or groups at one intelligence level really lack the tools to understand a group that’s, for instance, ten times as smart. Of course, “ten times” is impossible for us to really quantify anyway, because “ten times” what? The word “intelligence” is really poorly defined in absolute terms. I mean, if you’re good at math but can’t remember dates and anniversaries, are you smarter than someone who struggles to add 15 and 7, but has an eidetic memory? Or is the world’s best astrophysicist smarter than the world’s best diplomat? One can figure out what dark energy is, the other can save hundreds of millions of lives by preventing wars. How much does emotional intelligence factor in? Without it, we’d have a world of sociopaths. At a certain point, information throughput becomes a limiting factor. Is a once-in-a-generation genius who secludes himself and occasionally publishes some revolutionary mathematical proof “smarter” than The Machine from Person of Interest (which was a show where a massive supercomputer processed every video and phone call and text message, etc, and alerted the Feds to terrorist plots – which sounds terribly dystopian, but the inventor (the glasses guy from Lost) made it a closed system so the government couldn’t use it to spy. The bulk of the episodes revolved around the fact that it could also detect people plotting non-national level crimes like murder, so the inventor put a backdoor in that would spit out a Person of Interest, and they wouldn’t know if it was the perpetrator or the victim. Anyway, I thought it was an entertaining show.) You’d probably say that The Machine in this case wasn’t intelligent at all, but throughout the series, it demonstrated an ability to learn and had a non-human intelligence that allowed it to stay ahead of the evil government agencies and corporations that wanted to abuse its abilities.
The point is, actual capitol-S Super intelligence is one of those things that are on Archon’s short list of Apocalypse level threats, because it’s very likely that the individual with that ability could out plot, plan, and prepare the entirety of the rest of the human race. If Deus built a suit of armor or a rocket powered paraglider and wore a goblin mask so he could rob banks, no one would give a crap about him on the macro level. Instead, he has the resources of a medium-sized-and-growing country and access to alien technology and probably demonic magic. So he’s being watched by a lot of agencies and interests. Some think he might become an exploitable resource, but they’re dumb. I mean, literally, compared to him, they’re very very dumb. Of course, that’s not to say he’s the only super intelligence on Earth. But most of the known ones are more like Digit. Focused on tangible sciences and engineering, not his broader approach to economics, diplomacy and politics.
Obviously Deus has some broad-spectrum approach to resisting chemical influence in place. After all, he’s the leader of an up-and-coming, expanding nation, and seems to be, on the surface, doing a good job for the people under his administration. And he’s making enemies of every surrounding country and eventually he’s going to start hitting countries that third parties have financial interests in. Third parties like diamond oligopolies, mining consortia, all kinds of larger criminal organizations, and eventually, whole countries. Not to mention the Alari colony ship. They’ve agreed to live under his rule, but what that really means is they do whatever they want within their little fiefdom, which amounts to the area they’ve expanded their ship into, plus some extra land they negotiated with Deus, but outside of that, they’re subject to the laws of Galytn. They would immediately assume authority if something “happened” to him. That’s assuming they could keep Thothogoth from using Galytn as a foothold for his own conquest, or that either of them could stand up to the Supers in Deus’s military.
So Deus has some preventative measures and contingencies in place, they’re just not super overt like most comic book Super Smarts do. You know, an army of Deus-bots, or a metal throne room with Kirby-esque pipes and energy fields full of dots that project force fields that can only be deactivated after he delivers a monologue.
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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Calling it now, Deus is the Ultimate Troll. His power adjusts itself to allow him to be as aggravating to his chosen target as possible. Right now that means immunity to Sciona’s power.
Do you know, I was just coming to propose this? Though it’s also possible that he really is just that smart that he prepares for everything (his intelligence letting him simulate something like a perpetual Xanatos gambit) & the trolling is just for fun.
hah.. no. But if his intelligence IS as powerful as maxima is strong, his brain has to be THAT strong and his nervous system as well just to keep up with it. Otherwise he’d over heat, starve etc.
He’s like that Bell Tolls guy but only when it’s annoying.
Which is… always
So his even talking to Bell Tolls would be a disaster.
Person of interest was the best!
A true super intellect could probably concoct a broad-spectrum, super-science innoculation against things that would try to interfere with said intellect. A different kind of ‘inbuilt tinfoil hat’, if you will. Or he could have bought one on Fracture Station.
And/or both the Alari and Thotogoth have given X-face such medication to prevent the other party from controlling him.
Why even take the risk? My money’s on the real Deus being in his hidden mountain lair somewhere and interacting with the world through a Deus-bot, that way he’s never truly at risk from anything like this because it’s not actually him that they’re trying to affect.
That sort of thing does not exactly improve company morale.
And why should he want to improve company morale?
He also isn’t raising readership morale, either. The sooner this smug lizard gets defeated and written out of the comic, the better.
Because he doesn’t lack for emotional intelligence, and can value employee loyalty.
I don’t like X-face any, but he’s more palatable than the blood devil woman or Thotogoth – to me, anyway.
I hope we will see Thotogoth again, he is quite funny.
I don’t think Deus would do that because he does have one weakness. He even says it himself, his arrogance. Why else would the world’s smartest human have a giant x-shaped scar on his face? I don’t think that was intentional. He named himself Deus. He is way too confident in his own intelligence to have body doubles and enjoys the perks of being hands on in situations like this one with Sciona.
The X is so that he can make the obvious joke about it. Deus, X scar, runs Machina industries? Deus X Machina?
Deus is irritating. When he turns that irritating against the villains it becomes amusing. Sciona is my fan favorite to foil frustratingly.
My guess is that the super intelligence power prevents drugs that would hamper said intellect from working.
Something similar happened in an episode of “No Ordinary Family”. Sister, whose mind reading ability evolved into mind suggestion (control) tried to use the ability on her brother. His increased intelligence power processed the situation, causing him to realize what she did, and negated the suggestion.
I don’t know the example, but it’s pretty much what I was thinking: Deus IS actually being affected by the chemical, but he has the self-awareness to understand exactly how he’s being affected and to compensate for it. Might even have deliberately exposed himself so he could feel for himself what the effects are.
Possibly. Could also be that his super intelligence isn’t his core super abilty (presuming he has one) but a byproduct of it. He might have some super ability to gain something by sleeping with people. So when he slept with Sciona he gained a good deal of her knowledge, her intelligence added to his own and he became immune to any powers she possesses. The Power would presumably then be something that carries on with her soul/ghost rather than genetics.
This could also explain how he was instantly able to recognise her when they shook hands and made contact if he retains some kind of inate psychic link he can detect again when he makes contact.
Other possibilites are that he has cloning capabilities but the more he clones the more it adds to his total brain power rather than dilutes it, or that he has a brain that exists elsewhere and psychically puppets his body.
Beyond that, his superintelligence might have help him develop a film he can cover his skin with that blocks her chemicals but is otherwise difficult to detect/feel and harmless. She might simply need to get rough and scratch him with her nails to access his blood more directly.
…Even beyond that, he could be some Terminator equivalent. A machine with a meat covering and crazy processing and intelligence.
Or that his super intelligence enabled him to add on other super abilities (like Sciona with the blood transfusions, but better and more sustainable) or that he’s using alien super-tech (like the force fields or even that he’s not even here but instead holographic but getting tactile sensations transmitted).
Either way, I’m happy just seeing us being shown that Deus wasn’t just trusting this situation to his faith in his own reflexes.
The problem for 160 IQ child prodigies is that we’re so typically unchallenged going through schools that are intended for people of ordinary IQs that we never develop the mental skills needed to cope with anything we find remotely difficult.
You enter kindergarten reading at an adult level, and have to suffer through Dick and Jane.
You master addition and subtraction the day you’re introduced to them. Likewise multiplication and division.
Your biggest problem with algebra is the teacher complaining you don’t show your work; What work? You looked at the problem and the answer was obvious!
Calculus? At least it got you engaged.
Then you hit tensors, it’s not immediately obvious, and you fold like wet cardboard instead of pushing through like somebody who had to work for it.
Unless really bright kids get diverted to special programs early on that challenge them, they never develop the mental muscles needed to cope with challenge. At best they end up as high performing slackers.
Deus either is so smart that nothing is actually challenging, or so smart that he reasoned out how to solve that problem, too.
Yeah I was a… not an actual prodigy per se, but smarter than all of my home town. I breezed through primary school, high school, and first four years of university majoring in pure math, then suddenly differential geometry hits and I realize actually I’m not _that_ smart, I just have good intuition that does not work at all with this nonsense.
Yeah. I was what you call a gifted child. At 14, I went to university to study math.
And I found that university math was actually difficult and that I didn’t have good mental tools to tackle difficult problems, so I struggled with everything that was too complex to fit in my head all at once.
I felt this. I am not claiming 160 IQ, but definitely well above average. I hit a wall hard when exposed to the freedom and difficulties of college combined with undiagnosed ADHD and was on the verge of losing scholarships after Freshman year. Luckily I pulled myself together and recovered.
This is pretty much my story. I don’t remember taking home any homework after my freshman year of high school. I got to university and my advisor looked at my test scores and said “Oh you don’t need to take this intro class. let’s just toss you into Chemistry and Zoology in your first semester.” It turned out I was far better at taking placement tests than at studying.
I had one undergrad prof who not only couldn’t fathom the squiggle I’d made on a test as my shown work, but couldn’t grasp “I figured out the rest in my head” even when shown. It was her own fault for phrasing the instruction as “show as much work as you need to solve the problem”. Always a frustratingly amusing memory.
“Then you hit tensors, it’s not immediately obvious, and you fold like wet cardboard instead of pushing through like somebody who had to work for it.”
Ouch that specifically sums up first year at UT so accurately. ‘Went from EE to CompSci because it gave me time to play D&D, learn firearms, and earn some money.
The trick is to try and find your challenge somewhere else.
Somewhere the school doesn’t teach.
If you follow the path given by the school the best they can do for you is speed up the entire curriculum.
Resulting in 14 year olds crashing at an university, which is only equipped to handle 20 somethings.
If you train something unrelated to the curriculum at your speed, you will stay within the range of the adults to handle your level of maturity and your peers, while still facing struggle early on.
This could be some obscure language, this could be lock picking or this could be puzzling.
It doesn’t matter.
As long your teacher never heard of it and it can be thought at an advanced enough level to challenge you.
This was me. I had the base intelligence and functional skill to breeze through high school and low-level college, and then I set out to try and learn Mandarin.
Brick. Wall. And no study skills to help me through it. Failed that one grandly.
He might be immune to mind alteration, but he probably could still OD.
He has access to the geode that held the liquid that gave Maxima her super powers.
Which include (near) impervious skin.
He also is super intelligent.
Even if he has not duplicated her power entirely, it is well within the realm of possibility that he reverse engineered something similar to impervious skin. (He may also have a scaled down version of superspeed, considering how quickly he turned around to grab Sciona’s hand when she tried to poison touch him)
Which would explain why he does not seem to fear snipers or, apparently, contact chemicals.
That geode was boner dry by the time he found it, there was nothing left of the liquid, and he was just guessing it was the same one (specially seeing how Maxi never told anyone about it in the first place… )
The reason he doesn’t fear snipers is because he has an invisible super up his arse at all times
So, how dry is a boner?
Depends on how frequently it has expelled liquid in recent history. One amusing trope is expelling dust after too much vigorous stimulation.
With any luck, not at all. Much like bones, they’re designed to be wet until they’re not needed anymore.
Sure. In the same sense that dropping someone in a vat of sulfuric acid and closing the lid will eventually result in a dissolved person. There’s only so much you can do with enormous doses.
I’m not quite that level, but I did go to MIT and I did score close to a 160 IQ* on a test administered over several hours by a licensed clinical psychologist. The first thing they told us at the welcome speech for new freshmen was, “In high school, every single one of you was in the top 10% of your class. Now, 90% of you aren’t. It’s okay. It’ll take some getting used to. But you belong here, and you should make the most of the experience.” It was honestly pretty amazing to live amongst my fellow nerds. Even if I was suddenly an average level student. There’s just something about being surrounded by people who “get it” and have fun in some of the same ways you do.
*IQ is a highly flawed measure. It’s useful for determining whether the basic areas of your brain are working correctly. But it was never going to actually be able to quantify all the various aspects of intelligence. The math portion is a long series of basic arithmetic problems and you’re scored based on how quickly and accurately you’re able to complete them. Which, as a dyslexic, I have trouble doing. But I loved multivariable calculus, which is a whole other kind of thing. Honestly, the test is racist, too, because the general knowledge section is really just a test of how much you learned and retained from a good quality English-speaking American K-12 education. My actual score on the test is only relevant as a measure of the progression of my own neurological condition by comparing my scores from year to year.
There is a problem with testing someone smarter than you are.
And yes, there are a lot of people making up tests. But I suspect they’re not the smartest ones around.
There’s also the problem of how to mark them.
Yeah, there is. A year or so after I took the SAT, I had the vindication that they realized THEY had the wrong answer on one of the problems they’d marked me as getting wrong. I mean, it didn’t matter, I’d still scored high enough to get into any school I wanted, but it was still worth a fist pump.
But I DID still fold like wet cardboard when it came to tensors. Diffy-Q, no problem, but tensors? Total mental block.
We do an absolutely terrible job educating really bright kids, most places. In some states, it’s even, disturbingly, deliberate. I can only think in horror of the waste.
You don’t have to be the smartest one around to build an IQ test, you just have to have access to people who are. The performance of those persons along with the performance of all the other people across the range of possible performance levels for a task is statistically analyzed to determine its relationship to a specific level of intelligence. That collection of performance data points becomes the normative population to which the test taker is compared. Developing a useful test of IQ ( and tests of many other things) is more a matter of good experimental technique than of extreme intellect on the part of the test developer.
Someone qualified to take IQ tests once told me the function of IQ isn’t to measure intelligence, but learning potential.
This it does much beter.
A huge problem with IQ tests in this context is that they aren’t really meant to assess extremes of intelligence. When assessing intelligence at the far ends of the IQ range reliability starts to drop off. Real IQ tests are developed for diagnostic purposes, specifically for identifying intellectual deficits. That is where their primary utility exists. In the course of my career I administered, interpreted or reviewed thousands of IQ tests. In my experience the only time high IQs were of any particular diagnostic significance was in identifying malingering in competency cases. WearsHats points out cultural bias. This is a real problem with IQ tests and it gets worse when assessing the higher ranges of intelligence as the higher scores are more strongly influenced by language and education. An IQ score of 130 puts you at two standard deviations above the mean IQ of 100 but for practical purposes any score over 120 is mostly just good for bragging rights. There are of course, always exceptions but after that point it is mostly a matter of specific strengths.
There are more than a few types of Intelligence (like Abstract, Practical and Emotional Intelligence), yet people don’t know that the IQ test only measures one type, Abstract Intelligence.
So what if Deus is smart in more than just Abstract Intelligence?
Yes, more than a few. I recognized the reality of different intelligences long ago, but far too late in life and it cost me a lot early on. I am well above average on several of the intelligence types; primarily logical-mathematical, linguistic, and spatial, and as I get older I’m gaining with emotional and existential intelligences (classic gaining wisdom with age). But my interpersonal intelligence is and always has been below average. I don’t consider myself rude, and I never demean or insult other people, but I don’t place high value on interpersonal relationships and tend to miss signs and let things lapse.
My wife is exactly the opposite. She has quite low logical-mathematical, linguistic, and spatial intelligences, but her interpersonal and creative intelligences are off the charts; she’s the classic extravert who “adopted” an introvert (me).
My youngest son is very similar to me in intelligence levels, right down to the low interpersonal skills. I’m struggling, but slowing working with him on recognizing 1) the existence of other intelligences and 2) a lower logical-mathematical intelligence does NOT mean someone is “dumb”. It just means they have different skills; a different type of intelligence.
I can see Deus having a full body energy condom shield.
Deus is taking ‘mind over matter’ and redefining it to work the way he wants it to…
Ok, why on earth hasn’t nobody mentioned this already: panel 4 is HOT. Dave, we need a new vote incentive stat!
No, no it’s not, it has Sci sitting on a steaming douche
It would be better if it was the lap of… let’s say Kat. But it’s still a pretty hot scene.
As smart as Maxima is strong. While that could just be a comparison because Maxima is the strongest super around (her only losses so far seem to be via alternative abilities not relying directly on strength, and her own hubris), but might also hint at a closer connection. If whatever was in the ‘geode’ was an extraterrestrial thing there might be more of them, and one might’ve bonded with Deus and boosted his mental prowess similar to how Maxima had her physical prowess enhanced. If we cut him open we might discover Deus’ brain is gold (or whatever color Maxima’s soft tissue is).
At least, I hope Deus is still going to turn out to be human. Having him be an alien would make him less interesting in my mind.
Also, Sciona slapping his face while he has that shit-eating grin is hilarious.
I was wondering if whatever gave him that scar is what knocked his brain into Super status.
Super-power based chemical reactions do not work if his super power refuses to believe they work on him? (I’m sure you could set him on fire just fine…)
Yeah I like these two together. They are fun.
If he really is a capital S superintelligence, he won’t fall for arrogance either.
He probably has his mind backed up six ways to sunday and this isn’t his only body.
i suppose that he might be affect by REGULAR drugs, but, if his mind is a product of super power, it’s logical that i could counter mind altering drug produced by another super power
I like how Deus at some point went “Ah yes, the smart thing is to be a total beefcake, so I dominate physically as well.”
I wonder if there’s a cool story behind the X scar, like ritual magic sacrifice, or if he just decided to do a “Deus X” joke.
Scarring your face just to make a pun place you in the highest league of pungeon master, but I guess it could be expected from a reinessance man like Deus.
I would definitely prefer if there was an actual explanation for why he is immune. “He has countermeasures” is unsatisfying.
@DaveB: I’m running into 403 Forbidden again when I tried to post. I’m using VPN as a workaround right now.
Yeah, getting those again as well
Oh, so that’s why he was so confident.
Also, it’s hard to define super intelligence because intellect itself is more of a philosophical concept once you get to the level of a fully educated, human adult. At a certain point, it just comes down to raw “power” of it’s own; simply how fast you can take in information, how well you can process it, and how long you can hold it in your memory.
Things such as using info in a non-destructive or self-defeating way is more the realm of wisdom.
Maybe not immune- maybe just HIGHLY resistant?
Honestly I don’t like immunities- I think they make a story boring.
Something that very very very hard to achieve? Sounds like a cool premise. Something that’s actually impossible? Bleh, bored now, walking away.
Okay.. I’m thoroughly convinced tha Deus X is this world’s Batman. Well if Batman was a meniacal megalomaniac that was posed to wold domination like Dr. Doom. So like a mix between Iron man and Batman.
Batman plus Iron Man should equal Dr Doom.
According to the latest Avengers movie, Iron Man IS Doctor Doom!!
Person of Interest was indeed a great show. Part of what made it so (and The Machine special) was that Finch recognized that his creation was going fight for its independence to achieve the goals he’d set plus whatever else it decided to do, so he taught it to care about people before letting it loose into the world.
Same thing with Zuzu the rogue AI on “The Rookie”
The last panel is among Dave’s best.
Did Supers RPGs have a skill like AD&D counter magic?
Is Deus just Hyper-Smart and his real power is something else that has non observable effects in his vicinity? (reality bender powers)
Who said it isn’t working. He seems more forthcoming than usual, telling me that the effects are probably being reduced to a truth serum. Reminds me of when Dr. Venture Esquire was interrogated at the Bee Hive but the truth serum had an unintentional effect.
Ok, Deus and Sciona=Xanatos and Demona. Which makes sense because Sciona is hot AF in either of her bodies.
Very interesting thoughts today on the nature of Deus’ super-intelligence, and some comments very close to my own thought about it.
My Theory On DEUS’ SUPER-INTELLIGENCE As Applied To Addictive Chemicals:
Deus’ mind is in constant conscious control of his body’s biochemistry.
Short, sweet, & to the point, & it would explain so much more than his immunity to Escorpia’s exotic chemical attacks.
Person of Interest was a great show!
They are actually lucky that Deus has some kind of goal and has decided that the best way to go about it is relatively openly.
If we consider what someone like him could do if he stayed in the background? Now that would be a nightmare.
As for her ‘chemical’, I’m reminded of a race from Perry Rhodan, which have two brains. One functions like a normal human one, the other is essentially a biological supercomputer that works completely logical. Usually both brains function in sync, but they can temporary unlink their brains and function either completely logical or emotional.
Deus might be able to do something similar with his mind. Whatever she uses might not be able to influence his logical thinking.
Yes, I was thinking another type of Superintellect could use their power like Contessa in Worm
I love that in Frame 4 and 6
the Leather Chair, and the Frame of the painting
are Photo-realistic, Pretty sure they are actual photographs
and everything else is hand drawn.
In my superhero universe, there’s a psychological diagnosis called Hyperintelligence Induced Sociopathic Syndrome (HISS), which is basically the “I’m so smart everyone else is stupid, and I don’t care about anyone who isn’t as smart as me” mental illness. While many people with it become criminals because they don’t think of others as actual people, some of them are treated, work with it, and are responsible for some of the world’s higher technology.
(The city of Philadelphia, for example, has fusion reactors on many corners that provide trash disposal and power for the local area, uses specialized nanotechnology for building, and the regular law enforcement officers wear light body armor and use non-lethal restraints against suspects. One woman with controlled HISS runs a company that develops and supplies it.)
Of course, some of the very worst villains have HISS, but that’s why there’s other heroes.
What’s silly to me about that one is how good humans are at caring about animals stupider than us and even robots, including feeling very negatively towards their suffering, everything else being equal. We might expect if we gained superintelligence we would still care for other people the way we would pets or at least how police care for their bomb disposal robots.
Then again, maybe an adorable kitty is just easier to empathize with for a superintelligent person than a comparative dumbass.
Yeah, that’s what happens – if you have HISS, you *expect* the cats and the nonsentient robots to be, well, adorably existing, but something that looks like you, sounds like you, and mostly acts like you… it’s the Uncanny Valley concept: To you, they’re just not quite “person” enough for you to recognize as such, and you develop a revulsion for it. And it’s insidious – it creeps up.
Which is why it makes people with it as dangerous as they are: one day, your point of view finally ticks over and you’re installing a mind-control subliminal suggestion into the speakers hidden in the ceilings that sound like air conditioning so they just follow your orders. (Those are real: look up “office sound masking systems”.)
Sounds like the Webcomic “A Miracle of Science”, where becoming a mad scientist is actually an established psychiatric diagnosis, with a regular course of progression, and an agency that locates mad scientists and makes sure they don’t do too much damage.
It was a huge influence on it. I loved it, owned the first book (the second was, as far as I can tell, never released), and it helped me with some conceptual developments.
In the acknowledgments, it gets a ping.
This one kind of reminds me of that one comic where Quicksilver talks about how he can’t relate to humanity because he processes everything as a speedster. Where EVERYONE annoys him for being too slow at anything and everything they do.
It wouldn’t need to be his “Mind is just too strong” or “His super intelligence somehow makes him immune” for him to effectively block her chemical attack. It might just be that he utilized his super intelligence in preparation against her powers, via implimenting preventative chemical countermeasures in his own body.
It could something as basic as Deus knowing that he was going to be in close proximity with Sci again, having already researched her power prior to that moment, as she has made it blantantly clear that she is prone to hyper violent reactions, is completely untrustworthy, and in general extremely dangerous to be around. Then using his intelligence to develop an innoculation against her chemical attack which either neutralizes its effect via blocking whatever cell receptors her chemicals interact and bind with, or perhaps just preventing the chemical from penetrating the skin barrier itself for absorbtion in the first place. Then all he would need to do is inject said innoculation into his body before her arrival to cause this entire chain of events to keep his mind while annoying the shit out of her at the same time.
There are fewer than 10,000 people in the entire United States across all ages that have an IQ of 160.
I think Deus would have been better served saying something closer to 150.
I was in the “gifted” program. Never bumped a grade, but still, too many people praising us for talent. Things not going perfectly on the first try are my bane. And one of my friends got a full-ride scholarship in engineering, then crashed and burned because he had exactly zero study habits. Everyone needs an intellectual sense of scale in their childhood and youth, and a good grounding on time management and how to set healthy expectations on themselves.
This’s a big challenge in education.
How does one challenge the gifted without alienating those who struggle.
My parents made the mistake running forward and speeding up the curriculum.
It just means kids who’re too young get in classes with more mature kids.
I agree with the approach of my grandfather here. Find something the school will not teach and challenge your kid there.
Learning good study habits requires struggle, but kids start to struggle at different paces.
This method doesn’t scale as you would need to find an immeasurable amount of teachers to challenge each of the kids on a different topic, but for a worried parent it’s certainly an option.
Sure, Sciona looks human, and looks great in human lingerie, but how do we know their people don’t wear giant opaque cubes to attract mates? This comic gets derailed plenty, but an alien lingerie sight gag could have been funny!
What do you mean you aren’t attracted to me submerged in a pit full of my ancestors teeth?
For what it’s worth, the average folks making average income from average jobs or owning average family farms have the same difficulty comprehending the difference between their incomes (and realistic potential incomes barring a lottery win) and those of millionaires, let alone billionaires and multi-billionaires, which is believed to be why so many of them have so readily been convinced that taxes that only apply to the ultra-wealthy would also hurt their own take-home pay, and that these folks who could literally buy a whole apartment building with a single average day’s increase in their stock portfolio value would suddenly become able and willing to pay more workers and higher wages if they just had to pay 1% less in taxes on their, and their companies’, annual income past the billion and trillion dollar marks respectively…
Sorry folks, Tesla and Walmart and Oracle and Amazon and Facebook and Electronic Arts aren’t going to suddenly hire a hundred thousand more people each and raise their pay by $5 an hour when they can use that money instead to reserve 90% of the output of electronics factories for an additional 18 months to build more giant datacenters to run AIs to replace their office workers by making computer parts and electricity and gasoline double in price and rent go up 20% for everyone but themselves.
Mental state can alter body chemistry, and with enough training pretty much every muscle can be controlled manually. If taken to the extreme, someone with super intelligence should be able to map exactly what even the finest sensations mean, calculate their source and predict their effect, and come up with ways to manipulate them on the fly. That can range from knowing precisely how to engage muscles to get the best result without risking damage, over triggering a shock state in a certain extremity to narrow blood vessels and slow the spread of a contaminant, to invoking specific thought patterns and memories to manipulate dopamine/serotonin levels.
I’m just a regular guy, and even I managed to teach myself to stop hiccuping by actively canceling the impulse of that muscle to twitch closed. I have no doubts that Deus could do things that are orders of magnitude more complex.
Voice training for trans women is effectively just learning specific types of manual control over each of the muscles inside the throat and mouth. I went from about a 60hz (B1) voice up to my current resting baseline voice which sits between 240-260hz (B3-C4) when talking. If i want to push it more then it’s fairly simple for me to bring it up to a pitch of 450hz or higher (A4), which I typically do whenever I sing to nightcore or disney princess songs. I am able to accomplish that because I’ve been doing daily vocal muscle practice over the past 30 years of my life. It didnt take me nearly that long to actually learn of course. I’ve just had decades of extra practice since I first learned the techniques.
None of my ability to do that was a result of any surgery or hormones either, I learned fem vocals over 10 years before I ever had access to either of those. However the thing that really fascinated me most was after all those years of using it non-stop, my brains neuro-plasticity has set 240hz to just be my default. My vocal chords have gained automaticity and so they just sit at that level without me putting in any thought or physical effort ever, even when talking in my sleep.
These days I sing best in the Mezzo-Soprano range overall, but I can raise it up to Soprano when I put in sustained concentration and physical effort. I can also drop it down below 170hz if I want to, but that also takes a even greater level of effort because I completely stopped using that lower vocal range entirely by the time I turned 17. Manual vocal muscle control is also the same general mechanism behind how professional video game or cartoon voice actors learn to modify their speech as well. Mel Blanc had over a thousand different voices he could re-create on command for example, and I’m no where near that good at character mimicry, Mel had some extreme talent. Regardless, it’s just lots and lots of practice with manually controlling your vocal muscles, until you have enough knowledge and skill to set your voice to whatever you want it to sound like.
I have known and worked with some very brilliant people. The issue, the biggest issue, is language. Everyone may be speaking English, but unless you’re specific, the context for a lot of things that people ‘take for granted’, isn’t. So learning how to communicate for the truly ‘gifted’ people can be a challenge, especially when they’re young.
Which is why a lot of very smart people are thought of as ‘odd’ when they’re younger. Because so many phrases have multiple meanings when you get right down to it (e.g. – Drive It Like You Stole It – actually has 2 major meanings, several minor).
Schools, in the better districts, USED to watch out for things like this, to move the smart kids up to more challenging curriculum. But too many parents got involved, as well as a fair big of ‘ism’s’ (how dare you promote that poor x-y-z child over my richass kid – where x-y-z isn’t just about color or sex). Nowadays everyone is taught to the lowest 20 percent in public schools.
The other problem as well is that people who are brilliant with some things aren’t brilliant with -all- things. Recognizing this and steering people into the places where they truly shine was very much a thing – don’t know if it still is – but the really smart people with experience used to make sure the ‘new guys’ got steered in the right direction.
Oh and being very smart does not equal being rich, powerful, or any of that.