https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toyu9jXCaKM
Sylvester James Gates, a theoretical physicist, argues on the Glenn Show for diversity in STEM admissions partly on the ground that outsiders being that have a better chance at bucking the “paradigm,” of seeing past givens to get to ground breaking work.
Gates notes that Newton had a heterodox religious view, being a trinitarian, and that Einstein obviously was an outsider in his society.
Loury pushes back with this point: while test scores and grade point averages are at least concrete indicators, there is no way to measure the creative capacity to see past what seems set.
This point seems irrefutable. The leap from outsider to ground breaker is wholly speculative, an assumption impossible to substantiate.
Since this capacity is born of a confluence of ascertainable intellectual strength and unascertainable innate qualities, only serendipity will yield it.
Gates makes two further points: test scores and marks are fallible measures; and they at best will only yield proficient scientists operating within the paradigm; they won’t get scientists past it.
These points ring hollow.
The imperfect isn’t the enemy of nothing better.
And serendipity may well deliver up a Newton or an Einstein in the person of the most privileged appearing, conformist seeming scientist imaginable.
Therefore, stick to admissions based on objective criteria, however imperfect.
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