Are People Getting Smarter or Dumber?

[floppylobster]

Pretty much the same.

We just have access to a larger pool of collected intellectual resources than we have ever had before. Unfortunately though, too much information is diluting the focus of some truly talented and visionary people.

 

[CroMagnon]

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

I started reading for fun when I was about 7. My dad would read me fantastic stories every night (Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit, the Northern Lights), but I always wanted to hear the next part, so I read ahead. Ohhh good times.

 

[Jagers1994]

As a species we are getting dumber and at same time we are becoming more insane, globally. I think we are getting insane becaues thats how the ruling class wants us to be. They want us batshit crazy and constantly killing, and raping eachother so we will be distracted while they run of with all the money. And I think we are becoming stupider because the more people you have in a group the stupid and more wild the group gets. A single person can easily think about anything and effortlessly solve any problem you throw at them but when more people are added they get distracted or they get less willing to think. Well shit I think Tommy Lee Jones sums it up pretty nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkCwFkOZoOY

 

[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.

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.

You're assuming that intelligence is passed on genetically. This is highly debateable. It's far more likely that the social factor takes precedence over genetics here. Look at how intelligence levels vary between countries depending on the quality of infrastructure and access to information and opportunities. Sure, it's FUN and LAUGHS to think that there's lots of genetically stupid people running around, plus it also panders to fashionable Internet forum cynicism and nihilism, but in the real world, no... there are not any more stupid people percentage-wise than previously.

 

[runedeadthA]

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

I started reading for fun when I was about 7. My dad would read me fantastic stories every night (Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit, the Northern Lights), but I always wanted to hear the next part, so I read ahead. Ohhh good times.

Evene earlier for me, I was definatly reading before i wad 5 but my parents had no idea until my primary school teacher told them. They actually assumed I was slightly retarded and that was why i spent half the time "looking at pictures" in books.Read LotR about 9/10 years of age, thought it was pretty good.

It bugs me that even at year 12/13 at high school hardly anyone reads book and i get odd and stupid questions like "How many books have you read?"(refering to lifetime total). I just give them The Look and reply "How many T.V shows have you watched?". Just more evidence in my belief that people are Dumber yet better Informed.

 

[L-J-F]

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?

Well yes, that is very true, however, and this is a big however (though it may seem to contradict my previous posts) I think that your environment can change how you develop. I'm not sure that we're getting more intelligent genetially or if it's just the environment that's bringing out that intelligence. For example, hypothetically a few thousand years ago the people might have been capable of higher IQ scores than today, but due to their environment their brains didn't develop as well, however today we're not capable of such a high IQ, but due to the current environment [our vast knowledge] our IQ is actually coming out higher than it did in the past.

In terms of intelligence in our genetics, or the capacity for intelligence, I think it's decreasing, however, at the same time, our IQ is INcreasing due to our environment. At some point in the future it will begin to slowly decrease perhaps, due to our capacity for intelligence declining to a point where despite our vast knowledge, we won't be able to get as much out of our brains.

Think of it like a spunge: a thousand years ago we were't squeezing very hard, therefore there wasn't much water coming out, however today, even though there is less water overall in the spunge, we're squeezing much harder and so more water is coming out than before.

Edit:

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.

You're assuming that intelligence is passed on genetically. This is highly debateable. It's far more likely that the social factor takes precedence over genetics here. Look at how intelligence levels vary between countries depending on the quality of infrastructure and access to information and opportunities. Sure, it's FUN and LAUGHS to think that there's lots of genetically stupid people running around, plus it also panders to fashionable Internet forum cynicism and nihilism, but in the real world, no... there are not any more stupid people percentage-wise than previously.

I don't think it's debatable at all, we evolved to this point didn't we? The creatures we evolved FROM are no doubt less intelligent than us, like my cat-university point before, environmental impacts are certainly important, but that's not the only thing at work. I'm not arguing that social factors aren't an influence, just that genetics are also involved - however, obviously social impacts will be much easier to notice [in the short-term] than genetics.

Idiocracy showed both aspects in my opinion, obviously the society became "dumber" which influenced how intelligent a person could become, but it also showed that genetically the capacity for intelligence was reduced.

 

[Icehearted]

For the most part, dumber. The smarter people don't reproduce as often, while the less intelligent end up having many children.

I swear I said exactly that to a friend the other day.

I think it's also about the amount of acceptance. People don't have to get better because they are among their own kind, so intelligence becomes an unnecessary social characteristic. Also, I too genuinely believe that idiocy breeds abundantly, whereas intelligence dwindles in personal ambition.

 

[fr3lance]

personally i think that people are smarter now in the sense of having facts memorized or responses ready. however there's appears to be a trend where people think less and fail to come to their own conclusions. instead they regurgitate whatever they've heard about a topic. this i consider signs of decreased intelligence.

 

[Halceon]

For the most part, dumber. The smarter people don't reproduce as often, while the less intelligent end up having many children.

I hear this all the time, but I've never read anything that shows an overwhelming genetic link to intelligence.

It's more of a memetic thing - not having various misconceptions thrust at you in the early days is really helpful.

 

[TriggerUnhappy]

Being in high school, I'd personally say that intelligence (book-wise) has improved, but common sense and manners have plummeted.

 

[Nouw]

For the most part, dumber. The smarter people don't reproduce as often, while the less intelligent end up having many children.

But that is to say people are born smart and don't grow up to be smarter?

People are becoming dumber, no thanks to the Education people are getting at school. It has to do with Modern Culture.

 

[Yureina]

I think that dumb people are just more easily noticed now than they were before, thanks to the internet and mass media outlets. As far as the overall society goes however, I don't think things are getting much dumber than they already have been. But... I might just be being optimistic like I usually am.

 

[ethaninja]

Dumber. Although I have a mate who is only 17 and he's one damn smart Physacist. Wish I could be that smart. But yeah, I find they are going to get dumber. I might blame it on media, I could also blame it on their parents, but in all, I blame it on the educational system.

 

[AWDMANOUT]

Dumber.

One of Napoleon's major flaws was attacking the Russians during the winter, the Russians burning all their resources so the French couldn't use them, and waiting for the enemy to die from the awful conditions.

Let's see... Copy... Paste...

One of Napoleon Hitler's major flaws was attacking the Russians during the winter, the Russians burning all their resources so the French Germans couldn't use them, and waiting for the enemy to die from the awful conditions.

Some of the worlds smartest made the same mistake, a few centuries apart?

Yeah, we're getting dumber.

 

[thisguywithhair]

I work in fast food and while that doesn't mean I can tell a persons inteligence, what I can say is that people seem to be feeling far more entitled. Also it has alot to do with the way the kids are being taught in school, and that is nothing. If it is not on the standardized test than it is just not taught.

 

[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?

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.

...thank you, I guess?

 

[Dr. UBAR]

I think for all of history we had the same concentration of dumbasses but it has only been recently that they have been given a voice by the internet and self entitlement by the school systems.

 

[Kiriona]

Eh, hard to tell... smarter is some places, dumber in others.

Though the smart people tend to only have a few kids. The stupids tend to squirt out twenty five of them. Probably because Homo sapiens took off so fast that we haven't had the chance to evolve out of our need to reproduce lots of kids. That kind of evolution takes millions of years. We haven't been around long enough, yet.

But anyway... There's a definite lack of common sense these days, and there's a SEVERE lack of willingness to accept responsibility.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

Both, we as people are better informed then we have ever been (kids know more about tech then a someone with a PHD in enginering). But we continue to make the same stupid mistakes. whats worse, with technolgy doing some much for us these days we are becoming lazy and complacent which is going to bite us in the ass real soon. We also now have this bizzare idea that we desrve everything just because we're breathing.

We need somthing truely horrible to happen to us to get our heads out of our ass. and i mean somthing that hits close to home. Like if you make more than 50 grand a year it's legal if someone kidnaps and rapes you. that will get us good and pissed...not to mention it'll keep us on our toes.