The intelligence of the human race

[Ironic Pirate]

Oh god, another one of these threads...

This, oh so much. The average IQ score has only increased with time.

No, the average IQ score is always 100, the test is adjusted to keep it that way.

I know what you're saying though, and agree with it.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

To everyone claiming the avarage IQ is increasing in the world: How much does China and India contribute to that? Both are countries with very big populations, and both are countries where education has become more prevalent quite recently. Considering how large a percentage they make up of the human race, if they alone got smarter while the rest of the world grew more stupid, the avarage IQ would still climb. Has anyone got the statistics?

IQ was not originally meant to be used the way we view it today (testing how smart people are). It was to establish a mean for the general population by which to determine the possibility of mental retardation. The mean must be based on local population to account for general education levels and cultural norms. For instance testing the IQ of a tribesman in Africa based on norms from any first world nation would be pretty much meaningless. So no it has nothing to do with China or the price of its tea.

 

[2718]

To everyone claiming the avarage IQ is increasing in the world: How much does China and India contribute to that? Both are countries with very big populations, and both are countries where education has become more prevalent quite recently. Considering how large a percentage they make up of the human race, if they alone got smarter while the rest of the world grew more stupid, the avarage IQ would still climb. Has anyone got the statistics?

IQ was not originally meant to be used the way we view it today (testing how smart people are). It was to establish a mean for the general population by which to determine the possibility of mental retardation. The mean must be based on local population to account for general education levels and cultural norms. For instance testing the IQ of a tribesman in Africa based on norms from any first world nation would be pretty much meaningless. So no it has nothing to do with China or the price of its tea.

I know this, but in this thread and in general, IQ and cleverness are used interchangeably, so I just conformed to that to make my post more legible. IQ is also a very flawed way of measuring mental faculties. It measures a very slim part of the spectrum that makes up "intelligence" and it is possible to increase your score, simply by doing a lot of logic/pattern recognition puzzles. Still, it's the "only game in town" so for the sake of argument, we could fix what amounts to 100 IQ at a time and use that as a scale. Let's say we use the IQ-scale from the 1950's. As far as I understand, what people are saying is that since then, avarage IQ has increased.

 

[Shiftygiant]

In a way. Since the 1970's, no one has been to another world. Since the concept of jetpacks first came about, the best we have made is a highly dangerous backpack that has fuel for only 20 seconds, and we let people with the slightest bit of intelligence to wither and die, while we celebrate idiots who cant do up there own shoe lasses as we once would a god. I don't mean to be cynical, as the intelligence is still out there, but our first contact with aliens will be a crap, as they view us as idiots for what's happened to our planet we could of prevented.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I know this, but in this thread and in general, IQ and cleverness are used interchangeably, so I just conformed to that to make my post more legible. IQ is also a very flawed way of measuring mental faculties. It measures a very slim part of the spectrum that makes up "intelligence" and it is possible to increase your score, simply by doing a lot of logic/pattern recognition puzzles. Still, it's the "only game in town" so for the sake of argument, we could fix what amounts to 100 IQ at a time and use that as a scale. Let's say we use the IQ-scale from the 1950's. As far as I understand, what people are saying is that since then, avarage IQ has increased.

Yes. From what I understand the mean has been moving "forward". Though this is likely mostly due to increased access to education and increased standards of general knowledge. People may or may not actually be "smarter", they are most likely just better educated. The IQ test is fairly limited. They have come up with "better" variants that test particular "types" of intelligence. While they may or may not be very well suited to the task they at least seem to be on to something with the "types" of intelligence.

 

[loomis]

Forget where this quote comes from:

"A person can be smart. People are stupid."

I love it.