Human intelligence is declining according to Stanford geneticist
91 replies, posted
[QUOTE=dedo678;39647789]I don't think we are getting stupid, I think the average amount of closed-mindedness has increased.[/QUOTE]
considering sodomy, heresy, and blasphemy are no longer crimes punishable by death i would say the exact opposite.
[QUOTE=archangel125;39647555]I'm not so certain. Technology's growth rate is still exponential. Think about it, humanity has been around for over fifty thousand years. We only invented printing presses a few hundred years ago, and only invented cars a little over a century ago. Today, we can communicate across the world instantaneously and have prosthetic limbs that are as articular as the real thing. I'd say that contrary to slowing down, we're speeding up. Massively.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but each new step is closer to the last
snip
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;39647986]Yeah but each new step is closer to the last[/QUOTE]
not really. it seems like every couple of years we are inventing shit that revolutionizes our lives in some way or another. it isn't small steps, we are also making great strides.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/44Xibwd.png[/img]
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Image macro" - Craptasket))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=Talishmar;39647421]The claim that if 1000 BC Atheneans were smarter than us they'd have to have figured out space flight is just too stupid to argue against.[/QUOTE]
You could argue that they didn't pursue their interest in it because they didn't find it useful in their time. However, I could say the same for those in the present; since the past 40 years we aren't extracting resources or expanding our territory in the depths of space.
[QUOTE=CatFodder;39647640][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism[/url][/QUOTE]
You wouldn't be able to send emails on that thing, or browse the web, or do literally anything else computers do. It was a brilliant instrument, sure, and it was great for tracking the stars. But that's [i]all[/i] it did. It was at best a calculator.
[QUOTE=Mellowbloom;39645867][video=youtube;clYwX8Z43zg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clYwX8Z43zg[/video]
IT'S HAPPENING[/QUOTE]we just need to feed our children more electrolytes
Intelligence != knowledge
I see his point. Just because we are becoming more knowledgeable does not mean we're become more intelligent. True intelligence is with creativity, problem solving, etc. Just because more people can read and write now does not mean we're more intelligent, simply more educated.
[QUOTE=Robber;39646133]Of course it's technology. Technology allowed us to practically disable natural selection, that's why there are more and more people that need glasses and apparently why we're getting dumber. That doesn't mean technology is bad though. Letting the weak people die is inhuman and we're better than that.[/QUOTE]
it's not like more people need glasses because half our lives are now focused 30cm away from our faces
[QUOTE=yawmwen;39647813]considering sodomy, heresy, and blasphemy are no longer crimes punishable by death i would say the exact opposite.[/QUOTE]
in most part's of the world ......... bur not all
Although the comparison to Athens was nice, it was a sprawling city state with mandatory democracy.
Compare that to the widespread population of Europe and the rest of the world during that time, and you might find that the modern reflection of peasants, the common people, are greatly many times more intelligent than the major population of the world back then.
Something that took a gloriously brilliant philosopher to understand is today taught by the millions, We have masses of people, not just a small majority in all kinds of sciences and knowledge on a scale unimaginable by the people of previous times, and while there will always be less educated people in certain areas of the world, that doesn't represent the human race as whole. Our technological advancement in recent centuries as well as our moral advancement has gone quicker than perhaps the combined development of human history.
I believe that people who truly believe we as a race have gotten less intelligent over the years are ignoring and taking for granted the massive amounts of knowledge attained by & available to many individuals of this age, unseen in pre-modern times, as well as the up-coming of free thinking, which is quite prevalent in this time..
my two cents again :)
[QUOTE=TestECull;39649113]You wouldn't be able to send emails on that thing, or browse the web, or do literally anything else computers do. It was a brilliant instrument, sure, and it was great for tracking the stars. But that's [i]all[/i] it did. It was at best a calculator.[/QUOTE]
You do realize what the term "compute" means, right? It literally means "to calculate." The antikythera mechanism is a computer.
If ancients humans were so smart, then why didn't they invent a walking talking robot?
How is more intelligence required to herd sheep, then figure out electronic and mechanical equipment?
[QUOTE=Paramud;39650346]You do realize what the term "compute" means, right? It literally means "to calculate." The antikythera mechanism is a computer.[/QUOTE]
you do know that a "computer" refers to an electronic computing machine, right? if any mechanical computing machine can be considered a computer then we have had computers since the babylonian/ancient chinese.
[QUOTE=Riller;39645905]It's a boob joke. And a very subtle gay joke, because all ancient greeks were gay, so they had no interest in the bossom of Ms. Higgs.[/QUOTE]
Technically everyone was bi. They didn't even have a word for homosexuality, they thought it was completely normal to have sex with a man.
Sigh, why can't we live those days again...oh right, the slavery.
[QUOTE=archangel125;39647555]I'm not so certain. Technology's growth rate is still exponential. Think about it, humanity has been around for over fifty thousand years. We only invented printing presses a few hundred years ago, and only invented cars a little over a century ago. Today, we can communicate across the world instantaneously and have prosthetic limbs that are as articular as the real thing. I'd say that contrary to slowing down, we're speeding up. Massively.[/QUOTE]
There is a theoretical limit to this, and that is the limit of societal adaptability/infrastructural and social capabilities to adapt.
Obviously in x years we won't be making giant leaps every millisecond despite exponential growth, so it's plausible that we will hit a ceiling. We have technology, but adaptability to the speed of discoveries only goes so far.
Our forum is a perfect example of how true this is.
[QUOTE=Broguts;39650590]Technically everyone was bi. They didn't even have a word for homosexuality, they thought it was completely normal to have sex with a man.
Sigh, why can't we live those days again...oh right, the slavery.[/QUOTE]
There is nothing inherently wrong with prejudice, sometimes it is deemed needed to structure society in such a way that progress is made and anarchy is stamped out.
Not saying it is anywhere near needed today, or even back then. Just saying society does things for perceived beneficial reasons most of the time.
Religion was what structured us for a very long time, and we lived our lives by it because we had nothing else to live by/nothing else was popular enough to be known/too big of a change. Not saying everything society does is beneficial to it or "right." Just saying that humans adapt their beliefs/infrastructure/attitude/societal views/inner workings to the situation and things around them, even if there is an existing way of life with the technology they have that is better.
[QUOTE=Moustacheman;39650669]Our forum is a perfect example of how true this is.[/QUOTE]
Well, I am unsure about the intelligence, but I am pretty sure that arrogance has increased.
[QUOTE=Broguts;39650590]Technically everyone was bi. They didn't even have a word for homosexuality, they thought it was completely normal to have sex with a man.
Sigh, why can't we live those days again...oh right, the slavery.[/QUOTE]
They had their own set of hangups - a lot of misogyny being the basis of most of them. It was okay to be the sodomizer, but not the sodomized - they thought it made you like a woman. They got about it by practicing mutual intercrual sex.
[QUOTE=Broguts;39650590]Technically everyone was bi. They didn't even have a word for homosexuality, they thought it was completely normal to have sex with a man.
Sigh, why can't we live those days again...oh right, the slavery.[/QUOTE]
They also thought that women weren't capable of feeling true love.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;39650559]if any mechanical computing machine can be considered a computer then we have had computers since the babylonian/ancient chinese.[/QUOTE]
Yes, that's why you're wrong.
[QUOTE=TestECull;39646539]I don't see any ancient Greek computers[/QUOTE]
[editline]oh hamburgers[/editline]
I recommend you read up on [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer"]this[/URL].
[QUOTE=Paramud;39651470]Yes, that's why you were wrong.[/QUOTE]
no you can't call a fucking abacus a computer without completely diluting the definition of "computer". guess what? i got a computer on my body since i can use my fingers to make computations.
you can't create programs for these computing machines, they are not computers.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;39651492]no you can't call a fucking abacus a computer without completely diluting the definition of "computer". guess what? i got a computer on my body since i can use my fingers to make computations.[/QUOTE]
An abacus (and this applies to your fingers as well, I suppose) actually isn't a computer, it's a calculating tool.
[quote]you can't create programs for these computing machines, they are not computers.[/quote]
Except they do have programs. The antikythera mechanism is programmed to predict astronomical positions. There are mechanical calculators that work just as well as digital calculators.
[editline]oh hamburgers[/editline]
And how exactly do you dilute a term? Language evolves constantly. If you actually want to preserve every word to keep its original meaning, you're actually harming language more than you're helping.
[editline]oh dear[/editline]
Here's a better example of a programmable analog computer, cipher machines.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Lorenz-SZ42-2.jpg/640px-Lorenz-SZ42-2.jpg[/img][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Enigma-8-rotor.jpg/399px-Enigma-8-rotor.jpg[/img]
You see those wheels? You can remove those and reposition them in any way you want, and it will give you a different result. You put text in, it gives you different text. If you know which wheel combination was used, you can put the different text in, and get the original text out.
i'm going to avoid arguing any further about this since it's really not that important, but when someone says "computer" there is a general connotation that goes along with that. even if something technically "computers", or "calculates", it doesn't mean it's a computer in the common usage of the term.
it was obvious what testecull was talking about when he said that the greeks didn't have computers.
[editline]20th February 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=Paramud;39651539]
And how exactly do you dilute a term? Language evolves constantly. If you actually want to preserve every word to keep its original meaning, you're actually harming language more than you're helping.[/QUOTE]
damnit this is sorta my point
[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;39651537][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/phvlRL7.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Well, the last assertion about Russia's beauty is pretty true
:I
[QUOTE=Mingebox;39650882]They also thought that women weren't capable of feeling true love.[/QUOTE]
Are you telling me they [I]can[/I]?
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