Are People Getting Dumber?

[Pseudonym2]

People weren't any smarter a long time ago. Scopes Trial,The Monkeys,Pet rocks, The Weather Underground,50's television, 70's fashion, Rob Liefeld.

If you want go back even further looks Aristotle's contributions to science. For hundreds of years people thought that a heavier thing fell quicker than a light thing. This could have been disproved with objects in a any household.

 

[VeX1le]

bu bein dum is awsome it tah bessst. really no its just people usually focus on the bad things like all those idiots on the news

 

[Random Argument Man]

I'm not sure what you mean as in "trollish nature".

Well, looking at your past comments, you're pretty offensive. Sparking comments tends to start flamewars. Now, it would be a shame, if a possible-good woman like you would be banned before getting to know the site.

what lol? i don't think my comments are remotely bannable. I like to voice my opinion. You're right that I did start some comments that then make some flamewars happen, but those topics were controversial to begin with.

Starting a raid on an innocent Youtuber, Intelligence ect

Did you like my rickrolling poem, though? DDDDDDDDD

Might I show you the guidelines (or rules of conduct) http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.84119

Note related to everybody else* Can somebody tell me: why should we take her down instead of showing her the proper way of posting? It seems illogical to follow the former.

When we say we post with respect, we actually mean it. Fighting fire with fire isn't gonna stop the building from falling down...

Now, I'm on the outside of this conversation looking in, but you're going a bit overboard.

She hasn't done anything heinous or overtly disrespectful. The worst you could accuse her of is being wrong or carelessly honest with half-baked responses.

I think the Escapist is too quick to call differing opinions "trolls".

And yes, I'm only defending her b/c she totally sent me some sweet pix lol!!

I wasn't really going overboard. I was just preventing something that might go too far. Besides, I was just trying to calm the tentions.

Note* What kinds of sweet "pix"?

 

[Bratzzzzzz]

My IQ just dropped reading this thread. People are not getting dumber, it's just technological advance that opens up MORE ways of people dying. I bet no-one died from walking in front of a train whilst playing psp before around 2003.

It's also why jet cars have gon nowhere yet, if you unleashed them on the populace you would see 9/11 x 10000000000000000!

Also, thunderhitler, who cares about your anon connections. Not your personal army e.c.t.

 

[quack35]

No.

 

[the captain]

People weren't any smarter a long time ago. Scopes Trial,The Monkeys,Pet rocks, The Weather Underground,50's television, 70's fashion.

If you want go back even further looks Aristotle's contributions to science. For hundreds of years people thought that a heavier thing fell quicker than a light thing. This could have been disproved with objects in a any household.

Wait, wait, wait!!!

Heavy things don't fall faster than light things? I shall have to prove you wrong.

Quickly, to the kitchen I go.


EDIT: (Recieved by telegraph) Tests proved inconclusive...Stop...Will have to retest in an actual laboratory...Stop...Have not given up hope yet...Stop...

 

[Delicious]

[I can tell that you're using words but I don't think you know how to order them.

I can tell you're trying to sound witty but it must be mighty hard when one such as you has Aspergers syndrome.

I have proof, you don't.
The flynn effect.
You can see a chart here:
http://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/intelligenceflynneffect.jpg

More intelligent? Maybe.

More literate? Definetly.

But no, we are just about as intelligent as we have ever been. The only difference is past generations did not have the internet to preserve such intellectual gems such as the aforementioned landscaping-truck-window-shooter.

 

[TerribleTerryTate]

In a word: 'Yes.'

 

[Ignignoct]

I wasn't really going overboard. I was just preventing something that might go too far. Besides, I was just trying to calm the tentions.

Note* What kinds of sweet "pix"?

I agree with you there, though it felt very much in the style of a mall cop threatening legal action against children loitering at Hot Topic. That's just the flavor I got from licking your post, mentally. Mostly the linking-the-rules and quipping-bannability part.

And no, I didn't actually get any "pix" from her yet. That was a pre-emptive response to a not-yet posted quip accusing me of reverse sexism, ie: defending one for her mammary glands.

I didn't get any pix... YET.

Thunder, I'm looking at you.

 

[Delicious]

More intelligent? Maybe.

More literate? Definetly.

But no, we are just about as intelligent as we have ever been. The only difference is past generations did not have the internet to preserve such intellectual gems such as the aforementioned landscaping-truck-window-shooter.

Yuppers. What I fear is that in the future we still have technology so advanced and lives so easy that intelligence will not be needed as much, and we'll fall back a bit as far as intelligence goes, and then stabilize to what our needs are for our enviroment.

I know it seems condescending but I just want the future generation to be as or more smarter than this one.

I don't think that'll be an issue, so long as technology still requires our input.

Of course, there might be that one genius who goes "let's go make a self conscious self sufficient race of robots!" So we just have to look out for the hunch-backed fellow with the robotic eye, evil grin and bloodied lab coat.

 

[traceur_]

To quote Albert Einstein "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe".

 

[CriticallyAcclaimed]

no, people are just as big of idiots as they always were, it's just becoming more and more evident.

 

[Nova Tendril]

Colonial age slavery. End of conversation. Since disbanded, people seem smarter already.

That's just ruthless industriousness, like Nazi Germany.

Efficiency comes at a price =p.

Was it foolish for plantation owners to exponentially increase their profits through slavery of a people they were informed were base animals? Only in the moral sense by our standards. It was an economic no-brainer.

Hell, even the work we get illegal immigrants to do for cash under-the-table (next-to-nothing amounts) is amazing.

Not a troll, just pointing out the difference.

Who said I was necessarily referring to those actions?

I'm sorry.

What "Colonial age slavery" were you talking about?

Was it the one in America, where the endless need for new manual labor fueled a booming slave trade?

Wait....I think you were talking to someone else.

Failure on my part.

 

[SeventhNadir]

In short, no people are not getting dumber (assuming intelligence is actually measured by IQ) as a result of the Flynn effect, which sees each generation on average 3 IQ points smarter than the last.

Possibly more accurate is that you believe that the world is stupid because of the greater, disproportionate accessibility you have to accounts of stupid people doing stupid things.In psychology this is called the availability heuristic, where basically your mind takes a mental shortcut and says "the more memories I have of someone doing something stupid and the easier they spring to mind, the more stupid people exist in the world."

Basically the same thing can be seen in perceived levels of violence. Many people (some with anxiety problems to begin with but some not) think the world is becoming increasingly more violent, when in fact on average, it is becoming much less violent.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I don't think that people are getting dumber, just the opposite in fact. The problem is that because there are more smart people around we are able to modify our environment more and at a more rapid pace. Technology keeps improving in leaps and bounds, and since it's hard to keep up with things, there's always bound to be people making 'stupid' mistakes. However, this kid who shot out a truck window to get at the contents is a moron. Guns make loud noises.

 

[Jonny The Kay]

I blame Jeff Dunham and Scary Movie 4

 

[SeventhNadir]

I think he was just taking the piss

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I feel that society is falling victim to sloth more than anything.