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Are we getting more stupid?

The Giant Noodle said:
It seems our humanity is kicking us in the back side.




[/SIZE]Read more: Are we getting more stupid? Researchers claim we no longer need intelligence to survive | Mail Online
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Well, scientists and engineers are getting smarter as time progresses, because we share knowledge and build off of our predecessors. The problem is our society is becoming more and more reliant on science and engineering but fewer people are choosing to pick up those careers.

So as a whole, I think the race as a whole is getting dumber, while an ever decreasing group of scientists and engineers are getting smarter.
 
When "what do you think about this?" got replaced by "how do you feel about this?"...that's when we turned a corner. To expand on specklebang's point about TV, we no longer really have to think about what we see, we are only required to feel something. Emotion replaces thoughtful consideration. Having the correct reaction rather than having the time to sort through the full implications of something...we see that with the current gun control debate.

Physically reacting to dangerous stimuli is a very important instinct for animals. Being able to reason and think through all of the implications of actions to decide what potential consequences are desired or undesirable is a hallmark of human thought. Replacing that with emotional reaction dooms us to regress to animalistic lives.
 
There is no universally accepted definition of intelligence. So really the question of whether human intelligence as a species is going up or down at best is a subjective question. Plus from reading this thread I think a lot off the posters are confused between collective, individual knowledge and intelligence.

Do I know everything that mankind has learned? of course not as an individual. Can I search online for any knowledge that I am interested in? Yes indeed I could, but that has nothing to do with human intelligence only the availability of knowledge.

IMO intelligence is the ability to reason out a problem. While gained knowledge can be big help in figuring out a problem it is meaningless if it does not relate specifically to the problem. But then things become very subjective when you realize that a child might solve the problem faster than an adult in the same circumstances. This can happen purely out of chance and I have been humbled by little children plenty enough to realize that intelligence measurement is subjective. But that is just on a individual level. The actual question involves the entirety of the human species not small subsections singled out for a study. There just are too many variables to accurately assert whether human intelligence is going up, down, or staying the same. We would need to see big changes in the intelligence of the species to be able to make any claims. Making the question a non sequitur, until perhaps someday a large shift becomes measurable. But that requires a up or down framework of discovery. Personally Ill just stick with intelligence has plateaued, that is until we gain further knowledge on the subject.
 
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