Conversation with Craft Xia on Life, Work, and Views: Founder, CHIN (1)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2022/07/08

Abstract

Craft Xia is the Founder of CHIN. He discusses: growing up; extended self; family background; youth with friends; education; purpose of intelligence tests; high intelligence; extreme reactions to geniuses; greatest geniuses; genius and a profoundly gifted person; necessities for genius or the definition of genius; work experiences and jobs held; job path; myths of the gifted; God; science; tests taken and scores earned; range of the scores; ethical philosophy; political philosophy; metaphysics; worldview; meaning in life; source of meaning; afterlife; life; and love.

Keywords: ancient Chinese, books, CHIN, Chinese people, computer skills, Craft Xia, family, graphic design, high IQ, James Clerk Maxwell, LSHR Light, Nietzsche, Religion, Steven Weinberg, Strict Logic Sequences Examination – Form II, Strict Logic Spatial Examination 48, Xinjiang.

Conversation with Craft Xia on Life, Work, and Views: Founder, CHIN (1)

*Please see the references, footnotes, and citations, after the interview, respectively.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When you were growing up, what were some of the prominent family stories being told over time?

Craft Xia: In my childhood memory, the prominent family stories I heard of were all read from books, such as Three Moves by Mencius’ Mother, Kong Rong Giving Away Bigger Pears, and so on. These were also touched in school education. It is no different from what ordinary Chinese children are exposed to.

Jacobsen: Have these stories helped provide a sense of an extended self or a sense of the family legacy?

Xia: These ancient Chinese family stories and the family stories of some world celebrities are part of the education most people receive in their childhood, and are mainly used to guide the construction of values and morality. In this regard, my family did not give me too much help. The education and information I came into contact with in my childhood mainly came from school. From then on, I did get some sense of self extension, but it was not a family legacy.

Jacobsen: What was the family background, e.g., geography, culture, language, and religion or lack thereof?

Xia: My family is a single parent family, my parents’ education level is average. I was born in Xinjiang Province in Northwest China. There are many Gobi deserts and snow mountains in Xinjiang. I am a Han nationality. There are many Muslims in Xinjiang, but my family, including me, has no religious beliefs.

Jacobsen: How was the experience with peers and schoolmates as a child and an adolescent?

Xia: I got along well with my peers in my childhood and adolescence, probably because I was gentle and friendly. I usually made a good impression on others.

Jacobsen: What have been some professional certifications, qualifications, and trainings earned by you?

Xia: I have a professional certificate in computer skills and a certificate in graphic design.

Jacobsen: What is the purpose of intelligence tests to you?

Xia: When I first came into contact with the intelligence test, I thought it was a test of cognitive ability and cognitive model. Now I take it more as an interest. I think its purpose is in general applications, such as the identification of people with intellectual disabilities, and the identification of people with good logical ability and cognitive ability.

Jacobsen: When was high intelligence discovered for you?

Xia: When I was a junior high school student.

Jacobsen: When you think of the ways in which the geniuses of the past have either been mocked, vilified, and condemned if not killed, or praised, flattered, platformed, and revered, what seems like the reason for the extreme reactions to and treatment of geniuses? Many alive today seem camera shy – many, not all.

Xia: Generally speaking, from a social point of view, geniuses refer to people with extremely outstanding abilities, who can have a great impact on the creation and distribution of social interests. However, the acts of geniuses will inevitably produce beneficiaries and people whose interests are damaged. Those who benefit from them flatter them, while those whose interests are damaged slander them. For example, Copernicus’ discovery violated the interests of the church, Royal rife’s research and invention touched the interests of the U.S. medical industry at that time. Jealousy and other issues are essentially disputes of interests. I think not only geniuses, but also people with great influence will be subjected to such extreme reactions and treatment.

Jacobsen: Who seems like the greatest geniuses in history to you?

Xia: James Clerk Maxwell.

Jacobsen: What differentiates a genius from a profoundly intelligent person?

Xia: In my opinion, genius is a talent that is far beyond ordinary people in a certain field and can not be crossed with ordinary efforts. However, people with high IQ are people who have higher cognitive and logical abilities than ordinary people, but do not necessarily have super talents in some specific aspects. They often can see the essence of things better than ordinary people.

Jacobsen: Is profound intelligence necessary for genius?

Xia: I don’t think it’s necessary.

Jacobsen: What have been some work experiences and jobs held by you?

Xia: I have worked as a programmer and designer, as well as in the blockchain industry

Jacobsen: Why pursue this particular job path?

Xia: I majored in software engineering in college, but also because of some of my personal interests

Jacobsen: What are some of the more important aspects of the idea of the gifted and geniuses? Those myths that pervade the cultures of the world. What are those myths? What truths dispel them?

Xia: The genius understood by the western world is generally extremely sensitive in the fields of physical mathematics and other natural sciences, but more sensitive in the field of psychological art. In the eyes of the Chinese people, the judgment standard of genius is generally based on the number of achievements, and these achievements are obtained in a very short time. Schopenhauer has interpreted genius in this way. Only those people with the highest spiritual endowment, which we call “genius”, can enter such a state: they are fully devoted to artistic creation or scientific research, and are completely occupied by them. Therefore, the whole life is closely intertwined with these things, so that they lose interest in anything else.

Many people think that genius is highly related to physics, mathematics and other disciplines. In fact, every field has its own genius, but its influence on society is different.

The history of many ethnic groups begins with myth. I think myth is that primitive people in the past explained some natural phenomena that they could not explain according to their own understanding. However, there were no words or other recordable things at that time, so they had to rely on language to pass down such things. They use stories or poems that are easier to remember and tell, so they are easier to pass down. In the process of narration, it is inevitable to add some exaggerated rhetorical devices, so the present myth is slowly formed.

With the more and more profound understanding of the material world, especially the great emancipation of social and humanistic thoughts in modern history, the war has also promoted the blending of civilizations in various regions, just like a violent chemical reaction. In such an environment, a group of great geniuses have been born. They come with the truth and greatly promoted the process of human civilization.

Jacobsen: Any thoughts on the God concept or gods idea and philosophy, theology, and religion?

Xia: Steven Weinberg once said: With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.

I think religion is declining. According to the 2010 survey, the proportion of people who believe in God in the 27 EU countries has dropped to 51%. Moreover, the more developed European countries are, the lower the proportion of believers is, and the higher the proportion of atheists is. Maybe because I was born in China, Chinese people generally do not believe in religion. If the environment is suitable, I think I may also believe in religion.

The religious people in ancient society suffered from an ontologicalnostalgia. They always longed deeply to live in the sacred and to be infiltrated by the power of the real existence represented by the sacred. The prevalence of nihilism today is due to the cultural stripping of sacredness

I like Plato’s words about philosophy: It (Philosophy) is a science that not only looks for what it is, but also why it is.

Jacobsen: How much does science play into the worldview for you?

Xia: I think that in the process of gradually enriching my knowledge of the world, science basically constitutes my world outlook. Science has eliminated many of my doubts, but it has also brought some ultimate problems about the material world and some more thinking about the essence.

Jacobsen: What have been some of the tests taken and scores earned (with standard deviations) for you?

Xia: If you mean IQ test, I have done some high-range tests

Strict Logic Spatial Examination 48, 31/48 (IQ 179.4 SD15)

Strict Logic Sequences Examination – Form II, 24/30 (IQ 177.8 SD15)

LSHR Light, (IQ 170 SD15)

Jacobsen: What ethical philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?

Xia: Ethics is a bottom line and the maximum value allowed by the values formed in the historical development of mankind.

I think it can arouse our natural love for virtue and enhance our hatred for evil; Through its fair and detailed comments, it helps to correct and clarify our natural feelings about the appropriateness of behavior, and by providing careful and thoughtful consideration, we can make more correct behavior than we might think when we lack such guidance. Such ethics is meaningful.

Ethics is easy to decorate with eloquence, so if possible, it can give new importance to the extremely trivial norms of responsibility.

Jacobsen: What social philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?

Xia: From Nietzsche’s criticism, he tried to expose the tricks of thousands of rights, and finally came to the conclusion that the essence of society is control.

In my opinion, Nietzsche inspired all kinds of critical theories that now dominate. He believes that criticism is the continuous deconstruction of society. When people deconstruct sociological, historical and literary criticism, they hold extremely clear views: control over women, control over former colonies, control over sexual minorities, hegemonic control over orthodox culture, hegemonic control over cultural industries… Such lists can be extended indefinitely.

I think the critical function of sociology is very meaningful. Although sociologists only provide reference opinions, they cannot change social phenomena. Because he is not the one who cuts the cake and controls the material resources.

Jacobsen: What political philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?

Xia: The knowledge of interest distribution is politics. The significance of political existence is to provide benefit distribution and solutions to benefit disputes between different classes, groups and individuals in human society. Man is an animal living in meaning. From a political point of view, meaning is given by the order of ought to be, but ought to also evolve. The driving force of evolution is the tension between ought to be and reality. When people ask questions, they actually encounter a mismatch between what they should expect and what they really are, which constitutes a problem, so they ask questions from this point of view. Political philosophy itself is to give a kind of natural expectation on political issues. It also constitutes an unconscious question meaning framework when people ask questions about political issues. When we ask questions, we will use a series of concepts in this question meaning framework.

In the construction of political ought to be, a good and feasible political philosophy not only gives a kind of expression of value, but also shows a kind of legitimate narration.

Jacobsen: What metaphysics makes some sense to you, even the most workable sense to you?

Xia: Truth, in form, is a kind of assertion; In terms of content, it is people’s conceptual reflection of the stable, inevitable and repeatable characteristics and connections in things and phenomena. Unlike the truth of science and common sense, metaphysics often studies absolute and unconditional truth. Metaphysics does not study concrete and sensible things, but abstract and overall things, and does not study objects that people can grasp and perceive. However, the scope of research is boundless and the content is unlimited, and people cannot observe and perceive objects at all, such as nature, material, spirit, etc.

I am a pragmatist. I think that due to human cognitive mode, metaphysics’ summary of the essential laws of the world cannot be verified, is transcendental, and usually has the characteristics of integrity. It has no clear derivation path and cannot be inherited. So how can we continue to study it?

But the research and inquiry of metaphysics is very necessary. I think metaphysics should determine a reliable research path and express its laws in clear language as much as possible

Jacobsen: What worldview-encompassing philosophical system makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?

Xia: I think it’s objective materialism.

Jacobsen: What provides meaning in life for you?

Xia: As an animal’s natural instinct, and the fetter with others.

Jacobsen: Is meaning externally derived, internally generated, both, or something else?

Xia: I think that only when things are interrelated can they reflect meaning. Human beings constantly understand and grasp the nature and laws of the object, and abstract meaning from it, which is both externally derived and internally generated.

Jacobsen: Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, why, and what form? If not, why not?

Xia: I have seen some reports about people recalling their memories of previous lives before. Some of them seem very real, but I can’t understand what carrier carries their memories. Is it the soul? These supernatural topics are of great interest to me, but beyond my understanding. I personally believe that there is an afterlife, but I can’t imagine the specific mechanism.

Jacobsen: What do you make of the mystery and transience of life?

Xia: Limited life seems to be a form of evolution, and reproduction and inheritance are more endless eternal life. The mystery of life lies in the moment when it was first born. We know that the essence of life is the orderly accumulation and release of energy, but the coincidence when it was first born from the inorganic world still remains mysterious to mankind. It’s like a script arranged by the universe.

Jacobsen: What is love to you?

Xia: Unconditional and absolute trust and dedication.

Footnotes

[1] Founder, CHIN.

[2] Individual Publication Date: July 8, 2022: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/xia-1; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2022: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.

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