[Copernicus]

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I don't think we need to go far to see that clearly some groups adapt and hyperdevelop certain traits in superiority to other groups. Let's take poker for example. Anyone ever notice how among pros, Jews are disproportionately represented? Anyone ever wonder why? Is there a poker gene? Do they teach poker in Hebrew school? Something cultural?

Here's my theory. For hundreds of years, European Jews were prohibited from owning land and entering many professions. The ones they could enter, like moneylending, were math intensive. Culturally isolated, they of course tended to breed within their group, those best at math tended to do best, had bigger families, etc . Over a period as short as 1000 years, this development of a math "brain" had a telling effect. When math suddenly became important to society in general, who dominated? Those who were math oriented, of course. Those traits are present in other groups, of course, but they are more prevalant in a population that's been forced to develop that skill for a long period. Poker comes along, also math oriented, and they are disproprtionately there as well.

Can't prove my theory other than through anecdotal evidence, and I'd love to see a study on it, but if the theory held, it would show that reardless of the skill or "intelligence", it is possible that certain groups do possess an advantage, and it can develop over a relatively short period of time.

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Cultural immersion is sufficient, without isolation and without breeding.