SeekingSimplicity Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Heard this on the radio this afternoon. Humans are becoming less intelligent as technology increases. The more heavily we rely on technology the less necessary intelligence becomes. My first question is if we dumb ourselves down that much, who will be left that will be smart enough to create all this great technology? My next questions were are machines really taking over man? Are the Matrix and Gattaca really our future? :001_huh: :tongue_smilie: I read another study that suggest that from an evolutionary perspective, we lost the need to become smarter as we shifted from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Intelligent? Or learned? Or able to remember things? Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kakids Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Define intelligent. Aren't we intelligent enough to use the technology? That is knowledge past generations didn't have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Intelligent? Or learned? Or able to remember things? Laura I do think technology is causing us to be less likely to train ourselves to remember things. And possibly learn some things. Who needs to learn in when it's all at our fingertips. I don't know what the radio was siting, so I can't say there. The article I read was talking about intelligence genes and evolution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I don't think it is intelligence they are losing but common sense and imagination. If you have a machine that does everything for you you never need to come up with solutions, think outside the box etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57548994/study-claims-humans-are-becoming-less-intelligent/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshin Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I poked around a bit, and it seems this is stemming from a controversial study. The study was released two days ago. I couldn't find the actual study, just regurgitation of the same brief article. The gist doesn't seem to be we are necessarily becoming less intelligent, just that our spatial abilities hit a plateau during the beginning of the agricultural age, and that increased genetic mutations and less natural selection may impact the ability for us to live up to our genetic intelligence ability. It's also theorized that our modern life has actually caused humans to diversify our intelligence, which I tend to agree with. We have the ability know to specialize, highly, on a certain subject or field, where in the past we didn't have that ability. But without the actual parameters of the study and the researcher's definition of intelligence, it's difficult to know whether I agree with it or not. It reminds me of a couple of studies from a few years ago. One study said that texting and computer messaging was ruining children's grammar, spelling and verbal skills. Another study showed that children that mastered "text speak" at a young age activated the same part of the brain that is activated when learning a foreign language at a young age. These texting kids had an improved ability over non-texting/non-second-language peers to learn other languages that persisted well into the young adult years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 TY for the link :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57548994/study-claims-humans-are-becoming-less-intelligent/ What I read was in a science magazine but it was basically the same thing. On the radio they were saying something about brain size, but I missed what they were saying about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Define intelligent. Aren't we intelligent enough to use the technology? That is knowledge past generations didn't have. We have the advantage of having the collective knowledge of past generations in addition to our own. I don't think that means previous generation wouldn't be able to figure out how to use things we have today if it were presented to them just like we did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I would propose that as we (as a society) are becoming more technologically intelligent we are becomming less socially/emotionally intellegent. (check out Girls on the Edge) Along with that there is a society for transhumanity (humanity +). There is a lot of reserach going on regarding putting chips in brains- esp for the disabled. Nat'l Geo had an article on it a while back. We are in a time period of cultural upheavel and shifting...imho, like the industrial revolution (check out The 4th Turning). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justLisa Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 (edited) If you ask my dh this is already a huge problem. He has a hard time finding really good people. ETA: but I think it's attitude more than anything. And laziness. I don't think humans as a race are somehow becoming stupid Heard this on the radio this afternoon. Humans are becoming less intelligent as technology increases. The more heavily we rely on technology the less necessary intelligence becomes. My first question is if we dumb ourselves down that much, who will be left that will be smart enough to create all this great technology? My next questions were are machines really taking over man? Are the Matrix and Gattaca really our future? :001_huh: :tongue_smilie: I read another study that suggest that from an evolutionary perspective, we lost the need to become smarter as we shifted from hunter-gatherers to farmers. Edited November 15, 2012 by 425lisamarie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I'm not buying it. Humans have scored higher on IQ tests over the decades so that they've had to be re-normed. We're just using different types of intelligence as our needs require. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterflymommy Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 People are also becoming less intelligent because there is an inverse relationship between IQ and fertility rates. I brought this up in the "when do you know you're done" thread. Smart people have fewer kids, less intelligent people have more-- on average. In some groups this results in a loss of 2 IQ points per generation. A standard deviation in IQ is 15 points. I don't know if this is true but I have an even more dire theory. Since high IQ/ and/or successful people tend to marry within their own groups their IQs will remain steady if not rise as a group while the rest continue to decline, creating an even greater rift between the haves and have nots. You already see this in India where the brahmins have some of the highest IQs (the highest IQ ever recorded is a young Indian girl) in the world yet the lower castes have some of the lowest. Remember that college educated women have a 90%+ in-marriage birthrate which has remained steady over generations while for non-college educated women out of wedlock births are becoming the norm. And since marriage tends to increase financial & social stability, this will be yet another chasm between have and have nots. Overall large swathes of the human population seems to be undergoing a dysgenic shift. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterflymommy Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I'm not buying it. Humans have scored higher on IQ tests over the decades so that they've had to be re-normed. We're just using different types of intelligence as our needs require. This is due to the Flynn Effect (better environmental factors, like no more lead paint), which is already reversing in some countries due to inverse IQ-fertility rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justLisa Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 People are also becoming less intelligent because there is an inverse relationship between IQ and fertility rates. I brought this up in the "when do you know you're done" thread. Smart people have fewer kids, less intelligent people have more-- on average. In some groups this results in a loss of 2 IQ points per generation. A standard deviation in IQ is 15 points. I don't know if this is true but I have an even more dire theory. Since high IQ/ and/or successful people tend to marry within their own groups their IQs will remain steady if not rise as a group while the rest continue to decline, creating an even greater rift between the haves and have nots. You already see this in India where the brahmins have some of the highest IQs (the highest IQ ever recorded is a young Indian girl) in the world yet the lower castes have some of the lowest. Remember that college educated women have a 90%+ in-marriage birthrate which has remained steady over generations while for non-college educated women out of wedlock births are becoming the norm. And since marriage tends to increase financial & social stability, this will be yet another chasm between have and have nots. Overall large swathes of the human population seems to be undergoing a dysgenic shift. Interesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotSoObvious Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 People are also becoming less intelligent because there is an inverse relationship between IQ and fertility rates. I brought this up in the "when do you know you're done" thread. Smart people have fewer kids, less intelligent people have more-- on average. In some groups this results in a loss of 2 IQ points per generation. A standard deviation in IQ is 15 points. I don't know if this is true but I have an even more dire theory. Since high IQ/ and/or successful people tend to marry within their own groups their IQs will remain steady if not rise as a group while the rest continue to decline, creating an even greater rift between the haves and have nots. You already see this in India where the brahmins have some of the highest IQs (the highest IQ ever recorded is a young Indian girl) in the world yet the lower castes have some of the lowest. Remember that college educated women have a 90%+ in-marriage birthrate which has remained steady over generations while for non-college educated women out of wedlock births are becoming the norm. And since marriage tends to increase financial & social stability, this will be yet another chasm between have and have nots. Overall large swathes of the human population seems to be undergoing a dysgenic shift. Have you all seen Idiocracy? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenC3 Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Ack! Idiocracy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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