Maybe the best proof of alien existance is that no-one has tried to contact usDr.Kay said:
Humans are the only noted sentient beings on Earth, so i'd say:
Smart: on average, not so much
intelligent: definately
Poll: Are Humans Smart?
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Humans are the only noted sentient beings on Earth, so i'd say:
Smart: on average, not so much
intelligent: definately
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesnt that fall under the catagory of morals? Your not necessarily lacking of common sense if you decide to not help your fellow man, could be that your common sense tells you NOT to help your fellow man. Sure, there are of course cases were this doesnt apply and the person in question has no common sense, this doesnt necessarily amount to all of humanity.TerribleTerryTate said:
I think this problems all abotu ignorance. Take a look abck into the Dark Ages, were people were told what to think and believe. Fast forward to the current period of time, and notice that things as a whole have greatly increased.
Now, if only I can make this seem less like an silly rant in my opinion...
Well said. You are only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Also, I have seen some people that are just utterly dumb and should not be allowed to reproduce. It also seems like there is a directly proportional value when money is involved. It seems as though there is a point when having lots of money actually reduces your common sense, rendering you a complete moron to the world around you. I'm not sure what the point value is, but it is most definitely there.John Galt said:
Some people are intelligent. Some people aren't. Even intelligent people do stupid things, and if you get a bunch of people in a group stupidity is almost guaranteed. The number of stupid people does seem to outweigh the number of smart people, but that's only because we hear a lot more about the stupids.
Depending on who you are talking about some are smart and some aren't. Also there are different kinds of smart, book smarts and street smarts or common sense. Some people have both, Some have neither and some have one of the two. People in general however are not smart because the majority of them aren't.
I quote Tommy Lee Jones from Men in Black: "A person is smart, but people are idiots." It is true. If you take one look at the world for what it is and still believe that people are intelligent en-mass, then I consider your opinion to be extremely misinformed.
Personally, I find intelligence as the ability to survive in a habitat given. Humans are very intelligent in this aspect. Although we kill eachother all the time, there is still an ever-growing rate of people flowing into the planet. By working together, we're making the population grow.
As others have said, there are a lot of "stupid" people because they don't use their potential. Take the poor. They could make surviving much easier, but they didn't use their intelligence to help them get far. So they lead their life struggling to get by and have a family to carry on their name. But wealthier people (middle class and upper class) used what they could, to do what they could and they lead a typically more suitable life to raise a family for.
This doesn't mean some are and some aren't intelligent. It's just whether or not we want to survive or not.
I don't see why people are saying we're smart because other species are below us. That's not what was asked. He was just asking if humans were smart. We are.
But most animals are as well. They've adapted and evolved. Some better than us to survive. Just because we can recollect memories and develop tools to help suit us for survival, doesn't mean we're superior.
As others have said, there are a lot of "stupid" people because they don't use their potential. Take the poor. They could make surviving much easier, but they didn't use their intelligence to help them get far. So they lead their life struggling to get by and have a family to carry on their name. But wealthier people (middle class and upper class) used what they could, to do what they could and they lead a typically more suitable life to raise a family for.
This doesn't mean some are and some aren't intelligent. It's just whether or not we want to survive or not.
I don't see why people are saying we're smart because other species are below us. That's not what was asked. He was just asking if humans were smart. We are.
But most animals are as well. They've adapted and evolved. Some better than us to survive. Just because we can recollect memories and develop tools to help suit us for survival, doesn't mean we're superior.
We're smart, but sometimes we are just clueless.
Case in Point: At my school, I remember a physics class oh so long ago when a girl, when asked if she knew off the top of her head, which way North was. She responded with an enthusiastic "That way!" with one finger pointed directly...
up.
Case in Point: At my school, I remember a physics class oh so long ago when a girl, when asked if she knew off the top of her head, which way North was. She responded with an enthusiastic "That way!" with one finger pointed directly...
up.
I find it interesting that the question posed sounds more like a query on the species. What has been discussed so far has been consideration of psychology and society (individuals & groups).
As a species we are smart. We have effectively outbid every other species in direct competition and now indirectly control the rest. War has been a part of the animal kingdom for as far as we can study. Poverty is much the same. Therefore how can one consider us smarter than the kingdom? How often do we fight compared to other species? How many cases of poverty do we have compared to other species?
As individuals and society goes there are plenty of stupids or smarties as the case may be. My lil bro once tried to convince me that 'preserving' the blond gene was important. This was said while eating dinner with my (at the time) girlfriend of Chinese lineage. I could tell his intention wasn't racial, but earmarked of stupidity. I hid my annoyance and replied with a questioning voice, "But if all the dumb blonds die off isn't that just like natural selection?" My gf and my mother both stifled their laughter as my brother scrunched his face in confusion.
I've been reading The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. If you find any of the above depressing or dismissive, that's probably why.
As a species we are smart. We have effectively outbid every other species in direct competition and now indirectly control the rest. War has been a part of the animal kingdom for as far as we can study. Poverty is much the same. Therefore how can one consider us smarter than the kingdom? How often do we fight compared to other species? How many cases of poverty do we have compared to other species?
As individuals and society goes there are plenty of stupids or smarties as the case may be. My lil bro once tried to convince me that 'preserving' the blond gene was important. This was said while eating dinner with my (at the time) girlfriend of Chinese lineage. I could tell his intention wasn't racial, but earmarked of stupidity. I hid my annoyance and replied with a questioning voice, "But if all the dumb blonds die off isn't that just like natural selection?" My gf and my mother both stifled their laughter as my brother scrunched his face in confusion.
I've been reading The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. If you find any of the above depressing or dismissive, that's probably why.
Intelligence is relative, it all depends on what you compare to the human intellect. Compared to animals we are smart. When asked such a question, however, I personally compare how much the human intellect knows to how much can be known. That gap is enormous...in this sense we are incredibly stupid.
