Are Human Beings Getting More Stupid As Time Goes By?

a reply to: The Arbiter of Lies

That's not stupidity....that's out and out insanity!

But, as you say, without our modern social safety nets...that guy and people like him would probably have died off before getting the chance to spread their genes.

a reply to: watchitburn

So, it's a matter of not being able to filter properly then?

Not being able to filter out the electronic 'noise' as it were?

Perhaps it's a physical thing along similar lines...we are surrounded by increasing levels of electromagnetic 'noise'..our brains are electro-chemical in nature, so could the 'noise' or 'fog' be partly responsible perhaps?

If so...what does that mean for us i wonder? Would this initiate a kind of evolutionary response to cope with the radiation bombarding our senses continually..a kind of physical filter being developed maybe?

Interesting.

a reply to: MysterX

if that is true though, our species probably only has around 50 more years before we end up like the people from that film you mention, or an even scarier thought...end up like the people from another book/film...the Time Machine..gulp!

I feel like we've got a maximum of 100 years or so left...before the big rift. If something from space doesnt end us sooner.

No I dont wish for it to happen...I'm more hoping for a mental/spiritual evolution of the human individual...the only thing that can save us from ourselves.

a reply to: MysterX

This phone number thing is a great example! I am too still remember our land line number from the 80's I cannot recall any number now all stored in my mobile. And here is my question, is it laziness? I dont remember any of the numbers because why would I have to, technology helps me in that. However I am fully aware that if my phone is lost I would be in trouble. So is it stupidity?

I know I should have a copy of the phone number list but I don't. At least that is both laziness AND stupidity

a reply to: szino9

Indeed...but here's the thing.

In a few examples of rush...I tried to memorize few numbers...and I constantly had to read the paper where it was written...and I couldnt remeber the correct sequence. It has to do with brain training. Like body training...if not done on a regular bases...body deteriorates. Same is with cognitive abilities...no training...cognitive abilities deteriorate over time.

edit:

I meant to say here...that due to techonlogy advancement...we are being motivated not to use our brains so much. Leave the heavy duty processing to computers. Just read out the result.

a reply to: MarioOnTheFly

We're all doomed then...damn that tech!

Gotta be careful not to sound like a UniBomber clone here..after all, this was his view too wasn't it?

a reply to: MysterX

well man...these days...everybody can be a terrorist...except the real terrorists.

A sign of times perhaps ?

a reply to: MarioOnTheFly

great edit!

So true, and I am no different. I dont want to remember phone numbers because that is what technology for. But...I still won't get hit by a bus because of it. And that is... common sense

love this thread

a reply to: MysterX

I don't know about filtering, maybe more along the lines of subconsciously prioritizing.

I think previously there was just less to think about.

Now everyone is constantly thinking about wars, sports, politics, climate, technology, entertainment industry, personal finances, add in school, personal relationships.

Not that our personal spheres of existence are bigger, but more global and national level things that maybe we weren't aware of before are now playing a larger role in our day to day interaction s and thoughts that interacting with a cashier at McDonald's only gets the bare minimum of our attention now, intentionally or not.

Going from swords and shields to automatic guns and nuclear bombs a strong case could be made for either position.

Human intelligence has a zero sum energy field for the entire species

More people = more division among energy

Less people = more abundance in energy

Less people also means that the people that are left have to be more intelligent as a be product of biology knowing it needs to carry the species on.

The threat of extinction

a reply to: Darkmadness

interesting view. There may be something to it

Common sense isn't so common if one weren't taught because of lack of education at a young age.

Smart people can always outsmart each other proving that no one really is smart, if another smart person comes along.

No one is really dumb. Some dumb people are actually smarter than others at certain topics or discussions.

Your OP only presented two things.

A foreign man probably was a tourist or was on a business trip from some other country where he probably never knew what 99¢ was.

The other was sarcasm. Many people tend not to get sarcasm as much as others. So it was obvious the cashier didnt know what you meant.

Nothing meant with intelligence as everyone differs!

a reply to: MysterX

I don't think people are "getting" more stupid; but I do think people are getting less education/experience/information.

Case in point: We were recently at my son and daughter-in-law's house, trying to string a canopy of lights in the backyard for a party. My son wanted it to be symmetrical. So we were doing a lot of multiplying and dividing... in our heads. At least everyone from my son and older. The others never learned their multiplication tables and couldn't do it in their heads. That doesn't mean they don't have the mental capacity to learn... they just haven't.

Later that same evening, the subject of texting while driving came up, and a couple of the younger kids suggested that us old fogies weren't as technologically savvy as kids nowadays because they grew up with it and we didn't. My hubby came up with the best response when he said, "Yeah, but we learned just like you, and now we know how to do things with modern technology and WITHOUT." And he's right.

That's where I think we're failing our kids -- and society. Technology is great and definitely has its place. But technology is limited. If we don't give our kids life skills that they have within themselves anywhere and everywhere, then we're setting us all up for failure.

I always found the following statement interesting, especially when considering the growing reliance on collective memory (the internet):

"Intelligence is the ability to solve a problem whose solution is unknown (not to be confused with the ability to solve a problem whose solution is already known, which is not true intelligence but actually a mere work of the memory)".

There is now no need to think for yourself.

Now factor in addiction:
But remember, it is the dumb, novelty-seeking portion of the brain driving the limbic system that induces this feeling of pleasure, not the planning, scheduling, higher-level thought centres in the prefrontal cortex. Make no mistake: email-, Facebook- and Twitter-checking constitute a neural addiction.

a reply to: luciferslight

Both my Wife and I were tourists too...spent a month backpacking and travelling around Canada, but even before we arrived we knew what a Cent and a Dollar were and their relative value compared to Pounds and Pence...i don't think tourism can be used as a reason.

The second one...i mean, who wouldn't get the joke? It's the BODY shop...where's the bodies?..body shop?

a reply to: Boadicea

Your Hubby was right...and so are you Boadicea, we ought to teach our kids common sense alongside everything else.

Can we teach common sense?

We try to with our kids, and it seems to be working...or is it something that mostly develops according to our life experiences and intuition and so cannot be reliably taught, only developed?

a reply to: MysterX

To be fair, both of your examples sound like retail workers getting trolled, knowing they are being trolled because it happens a thousand times a day, and trolling right back. Your first example sounds like a smart alec guy trying to catch the girl being stupid (because she works at McD's and therefore she "must be stupid") and it didn't work. People that work retail field dozens of crazy questions a day, after a while the humor of it wears thin.

I'm going to make a strikingly obvious point.

Most human beings are of average intelligence.

According to the Bell Curve, there will be a standard deviation in which the outliers are the extremely intelligent and the extremely unintelligent.

I'd like to point out something else here, which is that intelligence is not a virtue.

a reply to: MysterX

It really depends on if you're talking about intelligence, or education.

I would definitely argue that intelligence (i.e.: Problem solving, applying knowledge to everyday situations, etc.) has been declining for a while--the more that technology and service industries do for the average individual, the less that we are willing or able to exercise our intelligence to figure things out and fix problems with our own solutions.

As far as knowledge (education) goes, we're leaps and bounds ahead of where we were even 100 years ago, but at the same time, much of the knowledge is so abstract that it is meaningless to our daily lives, meaning that we benefit very little as an average human being by knowing things like our sun is a main-sequence star, or that Kentucky bluegrass is actually named that after the blue flowers that it produces and not the color of the grass blades, which are green. Hell, even knowing that A^2 + B^2 = C^2 is pointless knowledge if you don't know how or when or why to apply it to everyday life.

We are losing the grip on our intelligence as a species--at least in first-world countries and as it pertains to the average individual.