[doubleunplussed]

I think you'll indeed find, if you were to seek out the relevant literature, that those claims are more or less true, or at least, are the currently best-supported interpretation available. So I don't think they're assumptions so much as simply current state of the science on the matter, and therefore widely accepted among those who for whatever reason have looked into it (or, more likely, inherited the information from someone they trust who has read up on it).

Interestingly, I think we're increasingly learning that although most aspects of human intelligence seem to correlate with each other (thus the "singular factor" interpretation), the grab-bag of skills this corresponds to are maybe a bit arbitrary when compared to AI. What evolution decided to optimise the hell out of in human intelligence is specific to us, and not at all the same set of skills as you get out of cranking up the number of parameters in an LLM.

Thus LLMs continuing to make atrocious mistakes of certain kinds, despite outshining humans at other tasks.

Nonetheless I do think it's correct to say that the rationalists think intelligence is a real measurable thing, and that although in humans it might be a set of skills that correlate and maybe in AIs it's a different set of skills that correlate (such that outperforming humans in IQ tests is impressive but not definitive), that therefore AI progress can be measured and it is meaningful to say "AI is smarter than humans" at some point. And that AI with better-than-human intelligence could solve a lot of problems, if of course it doesn't kill us all.

[morleytj]

My general disagreements with those axioms from my reading of the literature are around the concepts of immutability and of the belief in the almost entirely biological factor, which I don't think is well supported by current research in genetics, but that may change in the future. I think primarily I disagree about the effect sizes and composition of factors with many who hold these beliefs.

I do agree with you in that I generally have an intuition that intelligence in humans is largely defined as a set of skills that often correlate, I think one of the main areas I differ in interpretation is in the interpretation of the strength of those correlations.

[doubleunplussed]

I think most in the rationality community (and otherwise in the know) would not say that IQ differences are almost entirely biological - I think they'd say they're about half genetic and half environmental, but that the environmental component is hard to pin to "parenting" or anything else specific. "Non-shared environment" is the usual term.

They'd agree it's largely stable over life, after whatever childhood environmental experiences shape that "non-shared environment" bit.

This is the current state of knowledge in the field as far as I know - IQ is about half genetic, and fairly immutable after adulthood. I think you'll find the current state of the field supports this.