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Modern Life Is Making Us Dumber
Humanity Is Getting Dumber
Scientists say that we have much smaller brains than our ancestors had 20,000 years ago … and we might have gotten stupider since agriculture became widespread.
Indeed, Huffington Post reports that we’ve probably gotten dumber than even our Victorian ancestors:
A provocative new study suggests human intelligence is on the decline. In fact, it indicates that Westerners have lost 14 I.Q. points on average since the Victorian Era.
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As for Dr. te Nijenhuis and colleagues, they analyzed the results of 14 intelligence studies conducted between 1884 to 2004, including one by Sir Francis Galton, an English anthropologist and a cousin of Charles Darwin. Each study gauged participants’ so-called visual reaction times — how long it took them to press a button in response to seeing a stimulus. Reaction time reflects a person’s mental processing speed, and so is considered an indication of general intelligence.
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In the late 19th Century, visual reaction times averaged around 194 milliseconds, the analysis showed. In 2004 that time had grown to 275 milliseconds. Even though the machine gauging reaction time in the late 19th Century was less sophisticated than that used in recent years, Dr. te Nijenhuis told The Huffington Post that the old data is directly comparable to modern data.
Other research has suggested an apparent rise in I.Q. scores since the 1940s, a phenomenon known as the Flynn Effect. But Dr. te Nijenhuis suggested the Flynn Effect reflects the influence of environmental factors — such as better education, hygiene and nutrition — and may mask the true decline in genetically inherited intelligence in the Western world.
This new research was published in the April 13 issue of Intelligence.
There are several theories for why we are getting dumber, including the following (the first 2 come from the HuffPost article):
(1) Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis points to the fact that women of high intelligence tend to have fewer children than do women of lower intelligence. This negative association between I.Q. and fertility has been demonstrated time and again in research over the last century.
(2) “The reduction in human intelligence … would have begun at the time that genetic selection became more relaxed,” Dr. Gerald Crabtree, professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford University, told The Huffington Post in an email. “I projected this occurred as our ancestors began to live in more supportive high density societies (cities) and had access to a steady supply of food. Both of these might have resulted from the invention of agriculture, which occurred about 5,000 to 12,000 years ago.”
(3) Humans evolved to eat a lot of Omega 3s:
Wild game animals have much higher levels of essential Omega 3 fatty acids than domesticated animals. Indeed, leading nutritionists say that humans evolved to consume a lot of Omega 3 fatty acids in the wild game and fish which they ate (more), and that a low Omega 3 diet is a very new trend within the last 100 years or so.
In other words, while omega 3s have just now been discovered by modern science, we evolved to get a lot of omega 3s … and if we just eat a modern, fast food diet without getting enough omega 3s, it can cause all sorts of health problems.
So something just discovered by science can be a central fuel which our bodies evolved to use.
Omega 3s – in turn – boosts intelligence and help prevent cognitive decline.
(4) Exercise boosts intelligence … and our ancestors got a lot more exercise than we do!
In addition, high levels of cortisol – the chemical released by the body when one is under continuous, unrelenting stress – and poverty can physically impair the brain and people’s ability to learn.
On the other hand, relaxing activities like meditation and prayer have been shown to increase brain mass and connectivity in certain areas of the brain.
Hunter-gatherers had more leisure time – and a more playful attitude – than we do today.
(5) Toxic chemicals in the environment can reduce intelligence. Examples include flame retardant, lead (found in many lipsticks), certain pesticides (and see this and this), and fluoride.
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Intelligence is a very subjective matter of fiction with a pinch of fact.
My partner for instance manages her own law firm, however, in grey matter stakes i consider her pretty dim. In contrast i am a seasonal worker, a part time santa claus to give myself a title, however, with almost no fear of contradiction am an authority on a variety of subjects and vocations and this despite having read only one book cover to cover many years ago. A green book with red pop up pictures, can't remember the title unfortunately.
Is there any chance i can get either a train or a sled for christmas this year?
To paraphrase a discourse presented in Albert brooks' defending your life' You don't want to be too smart and live on earth, it's just not the place for it.
if iq were open ended and a specie could acquire more intelligence through breeding, wouldn't cockroaches be doing algebra by now?
maybe iq is also moderated by invisible influences like cosmic rays or solar flux, or all that shit we can't even see like dark matter, etc.
maybe iQ is hardwired and we've hit the wall, I mean how stupid do you have to be to outbreed the food supply?
Gotta go flintstone reruns are on.
Dark matter is a mathematical construct - like black holes, unobservable. It was theorized to paper over observational contradictions to the institutionalized gravity only view of astrophysics. Electromagnetic force is 10 to 36th power stronger and explains these observations without mathematical fabrications. Institutionalized orthodoxies are the enemy of science.
Mind you the house,car,joint bank account, everything that can be nailed down is in her name only but Heh Ho!
It makes sense. When a person reads the writings of people thousands of years ago, wondered about Da Vinci's life, thoughts and inspiration, wondered how the ancients could build pyramids, aquaducts, edifices and civilizations which were able to function and prosper, one would have to conclude our ancestors were no dummies, which made me doubt the theory of evolution, not that creationism is any more believable. I just think some of the theories submitted by religion and science as to how we came to being maybe all wrong.
For comparison:
At one time, all native Americans in New England could read, at least according to John Adams. I think it was Jefferson who remarked that plowboys could be seen studying their Homer at the end of each row.
Up until the 20th century, Americans used to attend real debates lasting for days as family entertainment. Each response lasted 30 minutes up to a few hours.
Many schools required that you know how to read before attending. Harvard and Princeton used to have you translate a few pages of Latin into Greek and English as the entrance requirement.
Have you seen the letters home from soldiers during the American Civil War? It is difficult or impossible to find anyone who writes that well today.
Democracy in America was written by a young man in his 20's. There isn't anyone of any age today who could produce a work of such erudition and eloquence.
John Taylor Gatto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UadPqGscfI
Paul Tudor Jones ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWbl9TbAZHg
Gatto was my red pill.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6057734.stm
Humanity may split in 2
Don't know the veracity of such a claim, but it is possible. Who says our current species is "where its at"? We are evolving as we speak. How many iterations and split offs did it take to get to here since homo chadensis and other early homonids? We may well split again, and one half will die and wither away into extinction. Looks like we might be heading there thanks to people tolerating sociopathic narcissist imbreds leaders who are dumbing down the population into milkable lab rats.
..."If you dont give us $700b, there won't be an economy on Monday"
"But...but...but...OK Master"
Of course as a whole we are dumber. When the state did not provide for every Tom, Dick and Harry, it was the fastest, strongest and smartest that survived along with the good looking girls that the aforementioned protected.
Since the advent of the nanny state, the survival of the dumbest, laziest and stupidest are not only fed but also encouraged to procreate whilst those that should be procreating are too busy working and/or collecting toys. I am almost willing to bet that if births according to IQ were mapped out, the lower IQgroups will be found to be producing more children.
If we were smarter we would not be fooling ourselves by accepting and saving paper money.
If we are smarter why are wars more widespread?
Technologically we may be smarter but in terms of end result we are a dismal lot and increasingly so by the day.
If we are smarter where are the people to replace Archimedes and Jefferson?
We must be the dumbest species. What other species works to systemically destroy all its systems
idiocracy
Precisely , it's the downfall of the west that the one person one vote system has meant that politicians , mainly on the left, have positively encouraged the feckless and work shy to breed like rabbits.
It's only a blip against nature though, give it 40 years and normal service will have been resumed.
You wouldn't know it from reading the comments on ZH. /sarc
I know I have been getting dumber... When I was a teen I knew everything...
I know for sure Im not as smart as I was at 15. I didn't realize it was a generalized thing. I thought it had to do with some of the parties I went to in college.
In the teens and 20s one knows everything...
30s "I'm not sure"
40s "I don't know"
50s "I don't care"
60s+ "I don't remember"
Have you walked the halls of a public school in the last decade?
I have and have scars to show for it
Public library is even worse.
Not since the court issued that restraining order. damn gps knows where u are all the time.
it's like a thermos, it keeeps hot stuff hot, and cold stuff cold. so how does it know which is which
With todays social safety nets, political correctness, calling blue green and giving mentally retarded psychopaths human rights, we have essentially ensured a society that lives by the axiom of THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNFITTEST. That is pretty much modern civilisation. A bunch of tears, complaints and convoluted systems that spit our trashy culture and dig the rest of the country into the grave.
We're on a sinking ship.
I call bullshit mostly on the idea of genetics changing the intellegence of society over each century. What truly determines your intellgence is mostly immeadiate enviromental factors (Parents, School, chemicials, nutrition, excercise, your peers, your religion, Society's culture, your personality type, ect.
IMHO: Technology has enabled learning to become way easier so long as the will is there. This is especially true with vocabulary, which is essential to learning. Which is much easier and faster, using google/wikipedia to look up a word, or pulling out that old dusty dictionary and turning the pages for 5 min. or more with impatience to find the damn word!?
Though for the most part, the will is not there, due to culture, religion, school system.
(You think "No Child Left Behind" was meant to improve education? Think again!)
+1 for calling bullshit. But I have to disagree with your claim on books. They are better than electronic media, because they provide a kinesthetic experience which the internet lacks. That additional sensual input makes learning from books more sustainable. Books also challenge your visual imagination, while visuals do not, thus further enhancing your learning. The effect can be greatly increased by writing yourself (typing is not as good as writing by hand).
On Kinesthetics: one great key to math is putting pencil to paper. In the mid 80s I asked a Calculus prof if he used any of the new computer programs in his research. He held up a piece of chalk and said: I am not a button pusher.
+1 on your kinesthetic comment. Learning should involve more than one sense.
The first step is to recognize it. The Gods of the Copybook Headings always have their revenge.
the real threat for mankind is the fact that in most "advanced", "civilized" countries, people need anti depressants daily and dont reproduce much anymore, when they dont kill themselves Who thought that our specie might disapear simply because it doesnt want to live anymore. Even after whiteys disapear, the third worlders replacing them might end the same way, as it is actually progress, technology, that somewhat makes people lose the will to live. Only those who have a strongest will to live, goals, who enjoy struggling for survival, who have hopes -to dominate others-, survive.
re: "people need anti depressants daily"
So you're depressed and take pills for it that have these possible side effects on the warning labels:
How dumb is that?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=idiocracy&source=web&cd=8&ved=0C...
Who would have thought paying stupid people with taxes on smart people would make humanity dumber?
Being smart is painful. You might actually want to know what's going on...let alone be angry about it.
Not so much painful as frustrating.
Robert Heinlein:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances
which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then
— are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised,
often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking
people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as
sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip
back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
"he must be the king, cause he hasn't got shit all over him"
Agree completely, being smart in a dumb man's world is highly detrimental to your reproductive chances
Ignorance is certainly bliss. Moreso every day, it seems.
Ignorance is bliss, but comes back to bite you in the ass when SHTF!
Perfect example: Those who bought houses in 2006.
if you think about the toxins in our food, home, school, work, and "medicines" it's amazing we think at all
This winter, I wanted to paint all the interior trims and looked up a non toxic paint. This stuff was amazing, has nothing toxic, no odor and has great coverage
http://www.mythicpaint.com/index.aspx
Dude, I don't think we have time for a hot latte right now.
Ouch, ouch, ouch - this must be a deliberate attempt to confuse things!
women of high intelligence tend to have fewer children But no mention of the likeliest cause: introduction of the welfare state, disconnecting parents retirement from their effort in upbringing well educated children.
The reduction in human intelligence […] might have resulted from the invention of agriculture Some people have good arguments why the opposite is true: the forming of a high intelligence gene only allowed for agriculture for the first time, as higher understanding is necessary to predict seasons, farm well, and store food for the winter and seedcorn for next spring (and that gene then slowly spread through the human population, as a Mendelian trait).
We are DEVO... D E V O
I suspect that the curve is widening - with the extremse at either end farther out and the mean sliding downward. Those at the very top are brilliant and have exposure to more and access to more than ever in the past but that positive is overome by far more negatives. At the same time 'natural selection' is far less 'efficient' these days with society endeavoring to protect all. People who would never live long enough to breed - or be able to afford to do so in the past are having children. The low end of the curve is dropping farther and farther - and attempts at 'recentering' (as they did with SAT scores a few decades back) cannot hide the slide.
There are more and more dumb people even as the most educted are not having any children, a reverse form of Darwinism. You really have to love the high powered highly intelligent couple who 'forget' to have children until it's too late and who then, after spending a fortune in vain trying to have their own, end up adopting a kid conceived by a couple of dumb 16 year olds living in some trailer park. Environment does not overcome those genetics - have seen the result up close.
I suspect that environmental factors are having a far more negative effect on intelligence as well. Our diets stink and we're contaminated iwth god knows what throughout our lives. The smart have fewer children and the dumb have more. 'Idiocracy' was too close to the truth.
And meanwhile all this is happening as the jobs that remain demand more and more intelligence. Those good old factory jobs where a minimum skill set - repeated ad infinitum - sufficed arer long gone.
Meanwhile the populace in general are spoon fed pablum - the sheep are all too content to remain dumb and unquestioning.
The abolition of man. CS Lewis wrote about it an essay of the same name.
You nailed it there for a moment: " . . . . . . . contaminated with god".
In the end, when man is so proud and feels that he no longer needs God, that's when things will truly fall apart. He created us, via evolutionary means, to be what we are. Our self awareness is essentially proof of his existence. For that alone, whether dumb as a brick or smart as an Einstein, we should be thankful.
My grandpa could find his way with only the sun, and his watch as a compass.
My dad could find his way with a compass.
I can find my way with a map.
People younger than me need a GPS system.
kids need a cell phone to text the person next to them
We poison ourselves with fluoride and reduce our IQs:
As of May 2013, a total of 43 studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and human intelligence, and a total of 19 studies have investigated the relationship fluoride andlearning/memory in animals. Of these investigations, 37 of the 43 human studies have found that elevated fluoride exposure is associated with reduced IQ, while 19 of the 20 animal studies have found that fluoride exposure impairs the learning and memory capacity of animals. The human studies, which are based on IQ examinations of over 11,000 children, provide compelling evidence that fluoride exposure during the early years of life can damage a child’s developing brain
http://www.fluoridealert.org/studies/brain01/
IQ tests already are a dumb way to ascertain intelligence, so...
"IQ tests already are a dumb way to ascertain intelligence, so..."
Why??
Is it because IQ tests fail to predict fitness for rigorous education and professional competence?
Or is it "dumb" because such tests produce markedly different results for different races thereby requiring that we ignore the useful information such tests produce lest we offend the secular religion of human equality.