We needed a group of under-achievers to test it and when Mensa crossed our paths we jumped at them

We needed a group of under-achievers to test it and when Mensa crossed our paths, we jumped at them.They are not all under-achievers, of course, as a preliminary questionnaire revealed. There were some very bright, very successful, very contented people in the sample we selected for the survey. Intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, has become an acquired skill rather than a measure of natural ability.Mensa has been described as a singles club for nerds, but it is worse than that. It is a singles club for nerds with chips on their shoulders Eggheads with chips, you might say.

They know they are bright, but need to belong to a society to confirm, both to themselves and others, just how bright they are Now I like solving puzzles as much as the next nerd. Good crystalline intelligence plus mathematical insight makes you good at sums. And so on.Even supporters of the theory, however, rarely dared to utter its possible horrifying consequence: that pure crystalline intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, may be no use on its own at all. That is one reason that most psychometricians have moved away from old-style IQ-tests into more taxing measures of mental ability that attempt to measure applied intelligence rather than any supposed crystalline version. The other reason is that traditional IQ-tests, of the type Mensa use to decide whether you're fit to join them, have been around long enough for punters to learn how to do them. Good crystalline intelligence plus linguistic ability makes you good at languages.

The essential question was whether intelligence tests measured anything more than the ability to do intelligence tests. Since generally bright people tended to perform better at them, there seemed good reason to value whatever it was they measured, but the underlying theory was more complex. Supporters of IQ testing argue that there is a thing called "crystalline intelligence" which is the basic capacity underlying the ability to perform well at anything involving mental skill. Mensa have their own Special Interest Groups for things like that.

And Star Trek.In the 1960s, there was a heated debate about the measurement of intelligence. It all sounded such a good idea - a club in which clever people could meet and exchange ideas with other clever people. In real life, however, most clever people are clever enough not to need such a club Everything in their normal life does the job for them. Clever people are educated with clever people, work with clever people and marry clever people without needing to join a club.