Controversial study suggests human intelligence peaked several thousand years ago and we've been on

I have little doubt this is true. Once you remove natural selection from the process, as we have done with civilization, its no longer the strongest or smartest that reproduces most successfully. Its whoever has the most sex. Often intelligent people are so preoccupied with carreer that they never get around to having kids. Idiots will have as many as possible.

Watch 'Idiocracy' to see where we're headed and why...

De-volution...

Originally posted by SymbolicLogic
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Most of these posters think that an IQ test is an ineffective measure of intellect yet have no way to measure 'True' intellect.

I'm not buying it.

That's a quirky stance. You must have a need to feel good about your relatively high IQ.

IQ is unreliable as a predictor of life performance after about a standard deviation and a half over the norm. In fact, most people above four deviations over the norm have serious mental issues. Genius has no correlation after an IQ of 120.
It's a decent test, but far from bullet proof assessment. High functioning Autistics tend to score far under their
actual intelligence. I wonder which other funky brain organizations are missed out on being accelerated through education because of this nearly poor assessment of intelligence?

Just because we have yet to find a better replacement, doesn't mean we should accept the current standard. That would be unwise.

Amazing what the Bible tells you, a 2000 year old + book.

2nd.

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Well, there is a problem with what you are saying. While someone might have been able to build that pyramid, the vast majority of people were illiterate and uneducated. The very fact you can read makes you more intelligent than most of those people.

Your logic here is completely off. Let me explain. We are talking about biology/genetics, which is a primary pillar for a person's intelligence/health/etc.

There are probably countless people who have had the capacity for brilliance at birth, but who were born into unfortunate positions in a caste system/born as slaves/without rights leading to a good education/etc.

So many of the people who could not read would in fact have been able to read, and probably had the capacity to be smarter than many alive today.

Second argument against your logic -- you can teach a gorilla simple sign language. Because many of us do not know simple sign language, does it make the gorilla smarter? Same thing.

Read any Greek philosophy or Shakespeare lately? Humans today can barely make sense of most of it without hand-holding.

reply to post by AkumaStreak


Really? When I read their work, I see men wearing intelligence as a status. They try to be so deep, proper, and mysterious that it makes them look stupid. I can't stand to read their work honestly because I get a feeling of foolishness everytime I read more than a paragraph. They were wannabes, though, smart wannabes I guess you could say.

Originally posted by B2X2L
You are an ignorant racist, proving the OP right.

So thats it?
Rather than discuss the test, the results, the methodology, or anything about the hypothesis underlying the professor's thesis, you're just going to call me names?

You seem to be upset with the idea that African Americans are equal to Europerans, not greater than, when it comes down to modern societal living and intellectual capability. Whats that fact got to do with me, and why does mentioning it make me racist anyway?

No real documented research my ass....

Clearly, the real documented research occurs during every Presidential Election. Have we not seen enough human intelligence decline this year?

And Arthur C. Clarke can shove it. He sounds more like a traitor, where the machine AI are taking over the world and he happily hands them the key to the city.

Originally posted by jheated5
How would you explain the Industrial revolution and all the new breakthroughs with science today? I know there are dumb people out there but if you actually put your mind to it "pun intended" we can be so much more...... We are one evolutionary spark or scientific breakthrough away from upgrading our intelligence so to speak.....

Could we build the pyramids today?

Could we build Balbec?

There is plenty of evidence that ancient man was smarter than current man.


I've been reading a lot about the Indus Valley Civilization over the last few months, and one thing that really got my interest up was a statement that in the cities that had been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times from flooding, the quality and craftsmanship declined over time.

In other words the oldest building layer was the most advanced, information was lost over time.

We aren't talking about a few thousand years ago either, the peak of their civilization is estimated to be prior to 12,000 BC.

Originally posted by Zcustosmorum
I can quite believe that, I vaguely remember smart people with oodles of intelligence growing up, but NEVER have I been exposed to so many stupid people in my neighborhood in the last few years.

And strange thought processes going on out there.....just freaken strange.

Originally posted by AkumaStreak

reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Read any Greek philosophy or Shakespeare lately? Humans today can barely make sense of most of it without hand-holding.

edit on 11/13/2012 by AkumaStreak because: (no reason given)

Sure, I've been on a Shakespeare kick lately (although I am more partial to Dante), but by your own logic that doesn't matter does it? Even his own people didn't get it which is why Shakespeare's plays are filled with sex jokes. You gotta keep the people entertained. The scholarly have always been a minority in society. As for why people can't get it today, it's because English has changed over the centuries. All languages have changed over time, this isn't because the people are stupid. It's just a reality of human communication.

Either way, in the very last paragraph of the article the author admits he has no evidence for his theory. Most of you have no evidence either. Most of the posters here are simply whining about the world. It's the old "everyone else is dumb" crying that is so prevalent around here. What was the peak? What evidence can you provide for that peak? Can you provide actual measurable evidence or are we just whining?

I would counter it by saying this: Society allows people of lesser intelligence to survive. This does mean the species is getting stupider in a way. There are simply more stupid people around. Does that mean the whole species is in decline? I don't know. I don't think you prove that as it's not something we can measure that well. It's akin to how life expectancy increases when infant mortality decreases. Does that mean most people are living longer? In many cases, no. Either way this whole conversation is starting to smack of elitist BS. People spouting on about how they have never seen so many stupid people, crying about modern art. Some of you sound like cranky old farts.

Diet. Hfcs, grains, trans fats....those probably have a big role in making people stupid.
I read in one of the paleo diet sites that paleolithic skulls have larger brain pans than neolithic ones.
If true, it could be a more reasonable explanation.

reading the ancient texts like vedas and all, i agree with the study.
regarding present generation, technology and irrational liberal ideologies are making humans emotionally children.

Originally posted by antonia
Most of the posters here are simply whining about the world. It's the old "everyone else is dumb" crying that is so prevalent around here. What was the peak? What evidence can you provide for that peak? Can you provide actual measurable evidence or are we just whining?

I would counter it by saying this: Society allows people of lesser intelligence to survive. This does mean the species is getting stupider in a way. There are simply more stupid people around.

These are very good points
2nd

I'm really not hoping to offend anybody on here, and bear in mind I have people close to me who suffer from autism. But I'm intrigued as to how that will play out once this generation, with their extreme burst in rates of autism, starts to become adults and enter into society.

Some experts are saying that if we continue at the current rate, by 2020 one out of every 9 children born with have it.

As far as scientific studies go, 1 out of 9 would tend to thicken the plot with a theory such as the OP

reply to post by antonia

Either way, in the very last paragraph of the article the author admits he has no evidence for his theory.

what a shock, isn't it??

reply to post by AGWskeptic


I think you should spend some time reading architecture books.

Or, read some books that deal with microchip fabrication.

Or, read some books that deal with military theory.

Or, read some books that deal with biology.

Or, read some books that deal with AI programming.

Or, read some books that deal with audio engineering.

Or, heck, just read some books.

i think about this kind of stuff alot. my job is tech support for a broadcast company, i literally sit there all day long he;ping people fix their tvs and etc. i think about what tv really is, which is just a bunch of concepts and images, nothing actually real, and i think about what im doing, which is talking with people over the phone many miles away, so its also in my head. then i think about what im working for, which is the concept of "money" which doesnt exist anywhere as its all auto deposited into an online bank account. and to be honest, i dont even feel like a real human being, i truly do not. i know i wouldnt survive a day in a world without technology. i feel like im a slave plugged into this "machine" where i only survive under these specific conditions, and where im given enough sustinence (money) to barely make it at a time (living paycheck to paycheck). my mind is cloudy and foggy, and i feel so controlled by the media and the world, and i have very few thoughts where they seem clear. so i look at myself, and truly feel subhuman, i feel like a clone, a manufactured being to serve a very specific purpose, where otherwise im useless. so yes i do feel ancient man for the most part was much more aware, much more intelligent, and had much more purpose to their life, much more meaning. i mean dont really have to go back that far, i think prior to the industrial revolution people had much more meaning.

i mean dont get me wrong i like having technology and all that, but at the same time, my life has no meaning, i feel useless and disposable to society, there isnt anything that i work to acquire that i can physically touch, no quality of work, i cant say "look at what i have accomplished, look at the quality of it" im literally a manufactured "voice" over the phone that people can yell at because "their tv show gone done broke and i need to fix it" its no wonder i fantasize over doom porn, a world that changes, a world where me and thousands of other "drones" arent slaving away just so a 1%er can live the good life. truth is id rather take an ancient mans life, live only till im a teenager or twenty something, but have some sort of fulfillment and purpose to life, even if it meant dying as a real slave, rather take that over slowly dying from within over a period of a long lifetime.

Originally posted by jheated5
How would you explain the Industrial revolution and all the new breakthroughs with science today? I know there are dumb people out there but if you actually put your mind to it "pun intended" we can be so much more...... We are one evolutionary spark or scientific breakthrough away from upgrading our intelligence so to speak.....

IMO, looking back at what we actually know about the ancients, we can tell they were a hell of a lot smarter than we give them credit.
Put that alongside the amount of time that mankind has been around.
Apart from an obvious lack of evidence, whos to say we haven't reached this point in technological advancement already Just thousands of years ago.
Now if this were true, we must have lost everything somehow.
Look back at what's left from the 1800s, then the 1700s and so on, you only have to go back 500 years (roughly) and everything gets a bit misty.
Modern history as we know it doesn't span very long at all. Well on the grand scheme of things it doesn't.
Plus most of what we know about our history is based on books found throughout the ages, kept in museums, or kept in places like the Vatican.
Imagine our world today, without people, how long do you think our mark will last?
Surprisingly not very long.
In my honest opinion, I believe its possible mankind had its golden years a very long time ago.
I'm not one for government coverup conspiracies but telling everyone our time is gone, and were slowly becoming stupider isn't exactly the morale boost we need is it?

PLUS, if we did evolve on this planet like every other creature then surely we'd have everything sorted. So it would make sense that the peak in our intelligence would be a time where we wouldn't have to adapt ourselves to survive on our own planet?
Like the scientist said, he thinks the fact we live in cities is unnatural, and the fact we use tech to make life easier is going to end in us not having to do anything for ourselves.

With the massive amount of time we're dealing with here, and the tiny amount of recorded history we have to go along with it, I don't see why this theory is so far out.
Obviously except for the fact that, if it were true, it would change everything for everyone.

And is the fact we're here now, even having this debate, evidence that we'be gotten dumb and forgetful over the past few thousand years?

Originally posted by SprocketUK
Diet. Hfcs, grains, trans fats....those probably have a big role in making people stupid.
I read in one of the paleo diet sites that paleolithic skulls have larger brain pans than neolithic ones.
If true, it could be a more reasonable explanation.

Brain size is not correlated to increased intelligence. If that was the case then a sperm whale should be smarter than your average human, but it isn't.