Are humans getting cleverer?

[Brown_Pride]

IQ is a scientific term and therefore completely dismissable by anyone that doesn't understand it

bullshyt aside, we as humans are constantly evolving. It's a slow, slow process, so we aren't going to notice it. However, our access to information, including our access to better technology, our bodies becoming more efficient, better nutrition and adaptation physically and mentally, all contribute to humankind advancing. Intellectually, of course. We're much much smarter than, say, the world of 2001 even. But then again you always have religious and scientifically illiterate folk doing their best to pull us back into the dark ages, so you gotta measure the rate of advancement versus the retreat.

So it's not that we're getting more cleverer it's that we have access to more readily available information. I wonder what would happen if you took a baby from today and transported him back to 500 years ago he'd grow up just as big of a dumb shyt as everyone else. ...at least that's what I would imagine.

I would be really shocked to find out were that different genetically from people 1000 years ago.

I would measure intelligence by measuring the capacity to learn and understand and I would venture a guess that humans at any point and time are capable of learning the same things we teach now.

 

[Camile.Bidan]

it's rising rapidly in developing countries because of better nutrition and less stress.

 

[tmonster]

more clever you say?

..........................................................

 

[joeychizzle]

So it's not that we're getting more cleverer it's that we have access to more readily available information. I wonder what would happen if you took a baby from today and transported him back to 500 years ago he'd grow up just as big of a dumb shyt as everyone else. ...at least that's what I would imagine.

I would be really shocked to find out were that different genetically from people 1000 years ago.

I would measure intelligence by measuring the capacity to learn and understand and I would venture a guess that humans at any point and time are capable of learning the same things we teach now.

Ever since modern day humans started evolving differently from our primate relatives, our brains have been evolving. Our brains continue to evolve. Now I'm not saying that we'd be DEFINITELY smarter than say, a dude from 500 or 1,000 years ago, but if we look further back, our brains might be wired a little different. The ability to detect danger, recognize patterns, memorize things, associate things with other things, etc might be more advanced. Plus, our environment nowadays makes us smarter by default than say, people living in a city a thousand years ago. The shyt we are able to do nowadays, the experiences, the cultures we're exposed to, etc.
But yeah the ability to learn might not have changed TOO much. What I wrote above is just off the top of my head, and doesn't necessarily reflect true scientific facts.
It's good to THINK we're by default smarter than those who lived centuries before us though.

 

[Insensitive]

This was a great article, I tend to agree with the idea that there are simply
more intelligent people running around than a hundred years ago.