Humans Are Getting Steadily Smarter, Especially Girls

So where are they all at?

reply to post by TrueBrit



what kind of "smarts" are you measuring? The ability to memorize and retain? Or the ability to process and apply judgement?

I would say that the latter of the two is a current rarity. We have so many laws enumerating what you can and cannot do that one need not employ judgement. One only need act within the letter of the law. Thus, videotaping someone getting killed by a train instead of helping is, in modern times, considered "moral" behavior.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Well, I read that there was a study that basically said that in terms of pure intellect, the people of ancient Greece for example, were much richer in that regard that we are, that our greatest genius would be a mere pleb to the least of them.

What that means in real terms, who the hell knows? I mean, sure, no ancient greek could work an iPad right off the bat, interact with the internet without having a fit, or play PS3 on first encounter with it. But those things are not measures of intellect, but measures of how well a person has adapted to a global advancement in what we see as normality.

Also, it is worth noting that the example you give of someone recording a deadly incident rather than helping, is somewhat unhelpful. This is because morality (which should demand that the witness act to assist the endangered party) and intelligence are not the same, not related, and can exist totaly appart from one another. I know ignorant cusses who have wonderful moral fibre, and I know people who have deep wit and understanding, who are borderline psychopaths, who not only would not assist a person in danger, but take bets on the outcome of the scenario as it plays out. I also know people who are incredibly intellectual, and extremely moral.

One of the falsehoods fed to mankind by its leaders, writers, and journalists, is that intelligence automatically indicates decency and goodness. It does not.

I am merely interested that inside of a one year period, there could be two such WILDLY conflicting studies performed, which seem to inhabit the same area of interest, thats all.

reply to post by TrueBrit


While I stated it poorly, my intention was to say that modern cultures have moved from teaching people how to think, and instead teach them what to think. You spend your whole life learning dates, formulas, facts...all memorization. You don't even have to think about what is right and wrong, as it is all laid out in your legal codes.

The people of Greece valued thought. The people of modern western culture value memory. To such a degree that when you speak "IQ", most folks really don't know what is being talked about. Most figure it is what you know, not your capacity for knowing.

Alright, let's see if we can get real here in this thread...

So some people are somehow saying that women are smarter than men. Just idiocy. I hear the same sexism that men are smarter than women. None of it makes any damned sense. We're equally intelligent, yet designed differently. That's a scientific fact. I've got a dick, and women have boobs.

You know what else is different? Our brains. They are structurally different. This makes perfect freaking sense. Men and women specialized in different things for hundreds of thousands of years. It's preposterous to assume that women will, in general, perform as well as men in things which they didn't evolve to excel in.

Are there some women who are brilliant in math/physics? Sure, why not. There's a grand-master at chess who is female! Are there many, many times more males than females at the higher ranks? Why yes there is. Are there straight men who can keep up with and surpass women with their verbosity? Yep, they exist as well.

Exceptions exist, but the general facts remain. Women have larger corpus collosum, and higher white matter. Men have higher grey matter, and utilize their right brain more often with certain tasks. So what?

Now, onto this whole, we're getting smarter or getting dumber thing. I looked at the OP that mentioned the flynn effect, then looked at Phage's post talking about natural selection being decimated.

So the flynn effect reversed almost a decade ago now. I don't know why these idiots are still talking about it. Whatever the flynn effect truly represented, has passed. We're now in steady decline.

The article Phage mentioned talked about humans having peak intelligence back 750,000 years ago, and their reasoning was mere natural selection. I'm sorry, but that seems to not be the best reasoning. It's not taking enough into consideration.

The way I see it, it makes sense that some of the genes which were meant for intellect of mere survival may have died out, but that doesn't indicate intelligence as we now use it has died out. We don't need to fend off saber tooth tigers, or store long strings of information into our heads for no good reason. That's the past. These idiots are trying to measure our current course based on outdated notions of intellect. We are far, far passed mere survival.

What is intelligence? How about the ability to adapt and flourish within your environment, else transcend it all together and create from without. By that definition, I think we've got quite a few intelligent people around here.

So intellect doesn't exist without the environment. As the terrain, culture, and social institutions change over time, so does our perception of what intellect is change as well. If civilization collapsed, the article Phage mentioned would be realized as truth. If it keeps petering on, it's obviously incorrect.

reply to post by unityemissions



Did you bother to read the OP for the thread that you are now trying to "get real" on?

Obviously not. Try again.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Yes, I did.

Obviously you assume too much.

Try again.

Originally posted by unityemissions
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

Yes, I did.

Obviously you assume too much.

Try again.

Then perhaps you can clarify what led you to use the following thesis statement on your monologue:

So some people are somehow saying that women are smarter than men

I mean, I guess some people DO say that. Just no one in the OP.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


No, in this thread, elsewhere on this site, and in week to week interactions.

Are you suggesting that my post should include things which are only directly mentioned in the OP?

WHY??

Do you not see how this ties into the OP??

Look at the title of this freaking thread. It's obviously agenda driven, and not scientific.

If girls were really getting smarter they would stop dressing and acting like sluts and being Twits and more time reading books.

Originally posted by unityemissions
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

No, in this thread, elsewhere on this site, and in week to week interactions.

Are you suggesting that my post should include things which are only directly mentioned in the OP?

WHY??

Do you not see how this ties into the OP??

Look at the title of this freaking thread. It's obviously agenda driven, and not scientific.

I was speaking towards the OP, and thought you were. I often make comments that are indirectly related to the OP, as well. So I totally get what yer sayin'.

To the poster who mentioned women acting like twits and sluts....why concern yoruself with what another person does with their genitals?

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

You think like a pig.

Originally posted by PrplHrt
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

You think like a pig.

That might be the first time anyone has ever said that to me. Seriously.

This coming from someone who is calling other girls "sluts and twits".

LOL

Well,
In the real world I live in
The majority of the women I am around Are not of Intellectual nature..
Business setting/ manufacturing
They are good(mostly) at their trained (collage) job,, but past that... clueless
Not a whole lot of the "common" sense that life should teach or the adaptability for survival..
which is where I base my "smart" category for people in general.
A robot has the ability to download information.. but it doesnt mean it is smart or of Higher IQ

Oh and to make a clarification here..
Guys fit the same category in the above..
I just dont think Woman are getting smarter than men these days

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

I know whores when I see them.

Common sense isn't common anymore.

Is it possible that the IQ tests have become easier? School tests are, "no child left behind" saw to that. I don't believe people are getting smarter, our toys are getting better and that is dumbing us down.

Originally posted by 1/2 Nephilim
Common sense isn't common anymore.

Is it possible that the IQ tests have become easier? School tests are, "no child left behind" saw to that. I don't believe people are getting smarter, our toys are getting better and that is dumbing us down.

edit on 25-12-2012 by 1/2 Nephilim because: (no reason given)

You are correct,.
I am 46,. and am amazed at the lack of ability to think things through by most people today..
I am also becoming weary of resolving simple problems these people come across..

Back when I was in kindergarten, I dated all of the most hottest and popular girls at my grade school.

Now I don't stand even a remote chance with any of them anymore.

So yes, I agree, they seem to have gotten much smarter since then.

www.livescience.com - Men and Women Really Do Think Differently...

.........
The brain is made primarily of two different types of tissue, called gray matter and white matter. This new research reveals that men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with white. Researchers stressed that just because the two sexes think differently, this does not affect intellectual performance.

Psychology professor Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine led the research along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico. Their findings show that in general, men have nearly 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence compared with women, whereas women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence compared to men.
..........
The results from this study may help explain why men and women excel at different types of tasks, said co-author and neuropsychologist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico. For example, men tend to do better with tasks requiring more localized processing, such as mathematics, Jung said, while women are better at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions of the brain, which aids language skills.

Scientists find it very interesting that while men and women use two very different activity centers and neurological pathways, men and women perform equally well on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as intelligence tests.
..........

Originally posted by Steffenfield
Back when I was in kindergarten, I dated all of the most hottest and popular girls at my grade school.

Now I don't stand even a remote chance with any of them anymore.

So yes, I agree, they seem to have gotten much smarter since then.

So that to me sez,.
You havent evolved..?