Are People Getting Smarter or Dumber?

[L-J-F]

We still have environmental pressures on our reporduction, the sad thing is most people seem to say that more intelligent people will make more money and therefore do better off in life, however that's got nothing to do with the continued evolution of the human mind. It doesn't matter how much money you have, that's not going to do anything about the intelligence of the next generation, how many babies a person has and how many of those babies survive will.

Sadly, more intelligent and richer people (not saying they go hand in hand) generally produce less than less intelligent and poorer people. Furthermore, areas with sexual oppression and radical religion tend to have higher birth rates also. So, looking at all that, here's the most efficient type of person according to evolution/natural selection at the moment:

Lives in a poor oppressed area, is not very intelligent and is highly religious (meaning fundamental - see medieval Christianity, or Islam). That's the person who is shaping the future. - that's taken to the extremes of course, but you get what I mean.

In the "wild" the fastest, smartest and most physically fit creature will survive and reproduce more than the rest, however in our society there is no need for any of those things, though physical attraction still plays a part - but not anywhere near as much as it would in the wild.

- We're screwed.

Edit: I'd say intelligence is your cognitive ability, the speed and ability of your mind primarily in areas like logic etc. Knowledge is very different however, a big book holds a lot of knowledge but it's ... wait for it ... thick as a brick XD

 

[BonsaiK]

Simply put, without getting into much detail as to why it is I ask this question, do you think humans are getting smarter or dumber?

Personally, when watching the new generation of people, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that humans are definitely getting dumber for the most part. Of course there are the exceptions as made clear by most members here that there are still very intelligent people here and while I'd like to think that the dumb ones will merely die off as they would according to evolutionary theories, less intelligent people often produce more dumb offspring than more intelligent people produce, so I guess the worst case scenario is that the world just becomes a wasteland of retards.

So what about the Escapist? What do you all think?

Smarter, definitely.

It's human nature to think that everyone is getting dumber because everyone thinks they are smart and looks at goes others and goes "oh god these stupid people..." but really, education, access to information and knowledge is at an all-time high in human history. We are as a collective smarter than ever before. Also, people born to dumb parents often strive to be smarter than their parents.... dumb parents does not always = dumb offspring.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Simply put, without getting into much detail as to why it is I ask this question, do you think humans are getting smarter or dumber?

Personally, when watching the new generation of people, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that humans are definitely getting dumber for the most part. Of course there are the exceptions as made clear by most members here that there are still very intelligent people here and while I'd like to think that the dumb ones will merely die off as they would according to evolutionary theories, less intelligent people often produce more dumb offspring than more intelligent people produce, so I guess the worst case scenario is that the world just becomes a wasteland of retards.

So what about the Escapist? What do you all think?

If you've ever seen the movie Idiocracy (think that's the name) you'd know, dumber

 

[Crimson King]

They seem to be getting dumber, shorter, and they all seem to want to base every action they can off of any song from Oingo Boingo's Only A Lad album.

 

[L-J-F]

Simply put, without getting into much detail as to why it is I ask this question, do you think humans are getting smarter or dumber?

Personally, when watching the new generation of people, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that humans are definitely getting dumber for the most part. Of course there are the exceptions as made clear by most members here that there are still very intelligent people here and while I'd like to think that the dumb ones will merely die off as they would according to evolutionary theories, less intelligent people often produce more dumb offspring than more intelligent people produce, so I guess the worst case scenario is that the world just becomes a wasteland of retards.

So what about the Escapist? What do you all think?

Smarter, definitely.

It's human nature to think that everyone is getting dumber because everyone thinks they are smart and looks at goes others and goes "oh god these stupid people..." but really, education, access to information and knowledge is at an all-time high in human history. We are as a collective smarter than ever before. Also, people born to dumb parents often strive to be smarter than their parents.... dumb parents does not always = dumb offspring.

But the thing is that's knowledge, not your genetic makeup. You could send a cat to university but a five year old child would be more intelligent than it. As far as knowledge is concerned we're increasing exponentially, but "intelligence"? I don't think so, there's nothing making us more intelligent, no environmental pressures that gives any reproductive advantage to more intelligent people over less intelligent people.

You can learn all you want, you can study and be the most intelligent person in the world, but if a dumber person has 5 times as many children than you, then on average, it doesn't mean anything, their genes get passed on more than yours, making their children the dominant group, next generation there might be 2 of your kids with 4 children, while the dumber 5 have 30 children, on and on and on, I pissed myself laughing watching idiocracy, it was exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Julianking93]

If you've ever seen the movie Idiocracy (think that's the name) you'd know, dumber

You're about the 20th person to reference that.

What is Idiocracy? Should I know what that is?

 

[Dags90]

Is that just because less people are dropping out?

Honest question. You sound like someone who would know this kind of thing.

The only thing that would actually affect the given "drop out rate" would be reporting, which I don't know much about but assume is relatively hard to fudge given how many forgings it would require to reasonably affect national statistics. As for other factors that would inflate or deflate the value of graduating, like setting the bar absurdly low, I don't think that affects most high school students. Many public schools require some form of test to show that you know a bare minimum on certain subjects.

Again, I've never really seen studies which give intelligence a strong genetic factor. Most agree that it plays a part, but that social factors also play a big role.

 

[Sark]

Dumber, but better informed.

 

[Therumancer]

Simply put, without getting into much detail as to why it is I ask this question, do you think humans are getting smarter or dumber?

Personally, when watching the new generation of people, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that humans are definitely getting dumber for the most part. Of course there are the exceptions as made clear by most members here that there are still very intelligent people here and while I'd like to think that the dumb ones will merely die off as they would according to evolutionary theories, less intelligent people often produce more dumb offspring than more intelligent people produce, so I guess the worst case scenario is that the world just becomes a wasteland of retards.

So what about the Escapist? What do you all think?

The older generation always thinks the younger generation are dumb and out of control. That's just the way it is. Your parents thought the same about you, and your thinking the same about the newest generation of people, that's simply how it is.

In a strict sense people become inherantly smarter and more physically capable each generation, which is why the unbeatable records of yesterday are constantly surpassed. Also I tend to think that children become smarter more quickly, even if they don't reach emotional maturity quite as quick, something that society is having trouble dealing with on a lot of levels. This is the basis for a lot of the criminal problems, and youthful angst, even if every generation goes through it. Society has very specific ideas of what kids are, and what they should be capable of, and they have become increasingly inaccurate with time. You can see this to some extent with toys, at one time children could be easily amused by say a wooden horse with wheels for feet that could be pulled around, perhaps up to ages like 11 or 12. Today something like that is outgrown VERY quickly, hence the proliferation of things like video games that are pretty much retiring other forms of play, kids oddly enough require more intellectual stimulation. Though of course society has also changed in this regard, there are laws in some places preventing children from roaming neighborhoods to play so as not to disturb people. In other places it's simply too dangerous to let kids out. I think this hurts social development oddly enough, and is also why I think kids have so many health/obesity issues. For all the people saying "kids should go out and play", at the same time society prohibits it... but oddly enough you might notice that even with those health issues we STILL manage to produce athletes every generation that outperform the generation before them as capabilities increase.


Err well, sorry if that's long, blocky, and sort of incoherant. The short form is "no, I don't think people are getting dumber".

 

[Sojaus]

The question shouldn't be are people getting smarter or dumber. There is no real answer to that as a vast majority of people think they are intelligent. It should be a question of are people gaining or lacking common sense, that question instead of the one posed is much better.

Are people getting smarter? Due to interpretation
Are people getting dumber? Due to interpretation

Is todays society lacking common sense? Most certainly!!! <-- This I feel is what people are interpreting as being dumb.

 

[Captain Blackout]

You owe me a thank you for posting. You know why.

So, both trends are present.

We are far more technologically capable. We have drastically expanded our understanding of the physical universe. Despite the attempts of unitarded monothiests and deconstructionist anti-theists we even have a greater body of spiritual understanding to draw from. As humanity has progressed over the millenia and more, our brains have adapted to larger structures of knowledge to draw from and brilliance even now is being born. I'm rather certain one of my own progeny has a level of awareness that would make most on the escapist gawk in wonder if they truly realized that such a level of awareness existed in a human. (whaddya mean shameless plug?)

On the flip side just watching some of the posting habits here alone makes me shudder in horror. The level of sheer idiocy across the board... Then I lurk in 4chan for a bit and I feel a touch better (you may not want to ask how that works because it doesn't involve the pictures posted at all it's much worse than that). Politically most the active members in the US are running to the extremes as quickly as they can in an attempt to tear the country in two. I'm convinced the south will rise again. Everyday I see basic thinking not bothered with, as if everyone's on a low dose of valium. Or Xanax. The fact is that as society as a whole has become stronger, we have escaped the bonds of evolution. One of those most basic bonds is that those who refuse to pay attention to their surroundings get eaten. Remove that and people who can't or won't pay attention get to live. Now the whole culture looks a bit dumber. Magnify that effect over a planet with well over 6 billion people. Gack.

Not that I advocate the feeding of people to animals. Or maybe I do sometimes, just not for any possible reasons inferred here.

EDIT: It should be absolutely noted that parents who are willfully brain dead or physically just of lower potential can easily give birth to a brilliant child. Overall there's a mixed trend because evolution at this point is simply pushing the boundaries of human intelligence in both directions.

 

[Ham_authority95]

A very small minority of children actually read books and strive to expand their knowledge/understanding of the world around them.

What age group of children would these be?

Because I never actually read books for entertainment until I was around 10, and same goes for everyone that I've met.

 

[Plurralbles]

people are getting dumber, as they're asking this question. Fuck if I know. I believe it is a retarded question and one that should be answered in the negative(in terms of getting dumber).

Our great ancestors are just as intelligent or stupid as we are.

I think it's very immature and cocky to think we're smarter or dumber.

 

[airwolfe591]

Well, let's do a test. Can anyone tell me he original, primary definition of dumb?

I haven't heard it often anymore, but I believe you mean dumb as being synonymous with mute, the inability for speech?

OT: I think of it as a school dynamic, the smart kids are shy/anti-social (some at least) and don't step into the spot light very often aside to talk about their project, but idiots like to run their mouths whenever they get the chance, casting a shadow over the smart in terms of 'publicity'. That and as the human population grows, so does the amount of idiocy to intelligence grows as well. It feels like idiots are 3-4 times more outspoken than those that are of high intelligence. So no, I don't think there are more and more idiots in the world, just that the are seen/heard more often due to modern communications.

 

[Captain Blackout]

If you've ever seen the movie Idiocracy (think that's the name) you'd know, dumber

You're about the 20th person to reference that.

What is Idiocracy? Should I know what that is?

No, you shouldn't. It looks like a dumb movie, and what it's proposing is retarded and not actually happening.

EDIT: And you still owe me a thank you for my original post in this thread.

 

[Ham_authority95]

People are not getting smarter or dumber. All that is going on is an increase in the AMOUNT of dumb people.

There is something very simple about idiocy. It is so simple to go with it that many people don't see the point in struggling to be more. In fact, as another stated above, being smart now seems to be far more consuming than it should be.

I don't remember where it came from but the saying "I would rather be a happy fool than a depressed genius." seems to be very fitting for what I am trying to say.

Agreed, but that's just me.

Also, with the onset of mass media like the internet, people who do stupid things have been in the public eye much more than before.

 

[Skarovich]

I think that, as previously mentioned, the average intelligence has been steadily going up. That part is true. The thing is that when we go and see someone on the news or where ever and we call them idiots or what have you, what we're really seeing is that person's ignorance and lack of common sense, leading to a perceived lack of intelligence.

I don't mean to get all nerdy, but the difference between Intelligence and Wisdom from DnD comes to mind. Intelligence being what you know, and Wisdom being how to apply and work with what you know. (Don't quote me on that, it's been far to long since I've played or even cracked open a rule book)

I think that's what we've been seeing a trend of. The intelligence of humanity has gone up as a whole, but common sense has gone out the window.

 

[triggrhappy94]

theres a growing gap, with the smart end thinning into the middle-upper class "elite", which will rule over the surplus of the stupid population

 

[CroMagnon]

We are getting smarter. Now some proof.
Every single generation has been getting consistently higher IQ scores.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1068478.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/flynneffect.shtml

I know this is just IQ scores, but frankly there is no other reliable way to determine "intelligence". So there. Happy now?