The Glia Society

The Glia Society

Constitution

Introduction

This document should be seen not as a formal law imposed upon the society, but as describing the actual state of affairs as it has come to be. It is an ongoing process, an attempt to formulate how an I.Q. society is run.

I Name

"Glia" refers to brain cells ("glia(l) cells") that, in various ways, enable neurons to function. For instance, they physically support the neurons by being a scaffolding wherein the neurons lie embedded, and provide nutrients to the neurons. Members are analogous to neurons.

II Goals

  1. Provide a forum between intelligent individuals;
  2. Do, encourage, and support work and study related to high intelligence;
  3. Provide ways of self-improvement for intelligent individuals, for instance in fields like study, health, and work.

III Structure

Official tasks are in principle performed by the Administrator. When retiring, he delegates his office to a member. This simple structure is preferred over elaborate schemes with elections, boards, committees and the like because such "democratic" systems in other societies have been observed as being unproductive, not optimal, and a cause of conflict and infighting.

IV Offices

Administrator

Other offices

Members may hold offices related to any tasks that need to be performed; for instance, administrator of a forum, journal editor, or forum inspector (verifying that the society's members-only fora indeed house only members). Officers must perform their tasks with dedication, meticulousness, and persistence, which are rare qualities. Officers must be selected with care, as laxity in officers does much damage to a society.

V Admission

The ideal requirement is to be at or above the level of one in a thousand of the adult population in g (at the high end, that is). This implies that both adults and children are admitted if they qualify; if they score "one in a thousand" by adult (not childhood or otherwise age-based) norms. Acceptable for admission are tests with sufficient degrees of the following:

Formal criteria for these five independent statistics have not yet been composed.

In the light of the differences in average I.Q. across the nations of the world it is needed to specify the "population" meant above; to remain consistent with the actual admission levels of higher-I.Q. societies of the last several decades of the twentieth century, one must realize it is the population of the developed, Western countries that is relevant. Considering the lower average I.Q.'s in many other countries, this "one in a thousand" is probably around 1 in 10 000 of the world population, and this latter rarity increases as the world average I.Q. goes down.

Another way to indicate where the actual admission level lies is to give its position among high-range test candidates, which, according to the Administrator's most recent data (2023), is about the 700th millile; in other words, the level of seven in ten. In past decades, this used to be the 667th millile, or one in three, but the dropping level of test candidates, possibly related to the increasing ease of use of electronic devices and the Internet and therewith lowered candidate self-selection threshold, has moved this level up.

General guidelines for selecting admission tests

Suitable for admission

Avoided where possible

Such tests have no validity whatsoever in the high range.

Avoided at all times

On such tests it is extremely easy to cheat.

Specific high-range tests are the principal tools for member selection. Regular tests used by mainstream psychology are avoided as they mostly lack items that discriminate at high levels and therefore have no validity — that is, no g loading — in the relevant range.

Admission tests should contain at least two different item types (out of verbal, numerical, spatial, logical). Tests containing one item type may be used in combination; the pass level must then be met on at least two different such tests.

Assessment procedure

Given the large and increasing number of tests claiming to measure in the high range, it has become impossible to determine for each test individually whether it is suitable for admission. An assessment procedure that considers the quality of a candidate's (work, creative) output, whether or not in combination with one or more test scores, is also acceptable to determine if the candidate meets the society's requirement.

VI Finance

The society does not own money. The Administrator kindly finances his work from private funds. This is the better system because one is more careful with one's own possessions than with common property.

VII Journal

The journal named "Thoth" is distributed among members six times a year, provided there is a minimal amount of copy. It is produced at low cost and contains, verbatim, copy by members or others. There is no censorship and the Administrator or Editor makes no alterations or revisions. Copy is reproduced as accurately as possible and not shortened. Sole restriction to this anti-censor policy is that in no case correct answers to the society's admission tests are published. This paragraph implies that, apart from the restriction, any member at any time has absolute certainty that whatever copy that member submits is published verbatim. This guarantee is exceptionally rare and valuable for a journal, and constitutes a golden opportunity for who can appreciate it. If one does not seethat opportunity and grab it with both hands though, one does not deserve it to begin with.

The size of a journal issue may vary, depending on the amount of copy available at the time of production of that issue.

The journal is named after the Egyptian moon god Thoth. Thoth, represented as a scientist and magician, was seen as the inventor of writing and reckoning and creator of languages. Thoth weighed the hearts of the deceased at their judgement to decide whether they would be admitted to the hereafter or, if the test was failed, torn to pieces by a monster that was a mixture of a crocodile, a lion, and a hippopotamus.

IIX Members

When joining the society, the candidate receives a document with name, member number, and secret uniform resource locator. of the members-only web location. Members notify the Administrator of changes of address when needed.

Requirements of real name and identifiability

One can only join under one's real name, not pseudonymously or anonymously, and participation in any of the society's fora is only possible under one's real name. It must be possible for any member to identify any forum participant independently by comparing that participant's forum entry to the official member list of the society. This principle, which is a necessary logical consequence of the members-only nature of the fora, is explicitly included here because it is so often violated and apparently defies the intelligence even of Glia Society members.

Expulsion

Following incidents involving misbehaviour by members, the following grounds for expulsion have been formulated, with in parentheses the number of offences needed for expulsion:

  1. Fraud with one's, or anyone's, qualifying score (1);
  2. Publishing, spreading, or communicating to anyone else than the scorer, answers to admission tests (1);
  3. Leaking between-members communication to non-members without the explicit relevant permission (1);
  4. Admitting non-members to members-only communication fora of the society and neglecting to remove those non-members after discovering or being alerted to this offence (several to 1);
  5. Insults, lies, misrepresentation of another member's character, extreme rudeness, harassment, and similar behaviour (several to 1);
  6. Highly unethical (including criminal) behaviour outside the Glia Society (several to 1);
  7. Displaying in word or deed that one's actual intelligence level is well below the level required by the society (several to 1).

IX Revision

Revisions of constitution are undertaken by the Administrator.