Are people smarter now than ever before?

[TEH]

YES... Anyone saying differently is a bitter old head. Many people especially in the western world are more literate than before. Meanwhile back then half the population was illiterate!

Who's old enough to be arguing for Newton because of their age - just stop ....


All of you are saying smarter when you are actually referring to more educated


Are Humans Getting Smarter or Dumber? | Intelligence & IQ

Are humans getting cleverer? - BBC News

 

[Vandelay]

You're comparing different groups of people, and there are a lot of issues with the two.
Leonardo da Vinci is an unparalleled genius, comparing him with anybody, really is sort of silly, especially nowadays, since technology, science, art, and education have advanced so much.
It'd be more like Leonardo da Vinci or Alan Turing
Isaac Newton or Srinivasan Ramanujan
Mozart or Yuja Wang, the circumstances are vastly different.
Don't forget, it was far easier to be a "jack-of-all-trades" centuries ago when the body of knowledge was much smaller, and "breakthroughs" were far easier to reach.

Fair enough. I chose the people I chose without really giving much thought to it. Simplifying it to Jack-of-all-trades insinuates a master of none condescension. I wouldn't say the breakthroughs are anymore difficult. As I indicated, intelligence for the most part I believe to be static. I think the average person in the past needed deeper knowledge on a narrower range of subjects. My interpretation of intelligence is a more robust understanding of a subject. However, the overall capacity to learn has not grown any for millennia.

 

[Vandelay]

If innovations are built on something previous that means people are obviously smarter now.

No it doesn't.

 

[Ghost Utmost]

No way.

Did you miss the whole election thing?

 

[jerniebert]

No. There are more smarter people around but there are way more stupid people now.

 

[Black Nate Grey]

. Intelligence comes with societal stability and caloric intake.

Can you explain this in detail a bit more?
I've been obsessed with intelligence for a minute now.

And to answer OP, I don't think we are any smarter but technology has made our attention span shot.

 

[I.AM.PIFF]

People prior to the 1900's were smart as shyt...it really wasn't a thing for someone back in the day to speak four languages, play four instruments, paint crazy portraits, ferment their own alcohol, travel the seas in a boat they built...Nah people aren't smarter today...

These were some major exceptions tho, most people back then didn't know shyt...

 

[Mowgli]

We have:

• the internet, a GOAT source of information
• more organized libaries that can deliver you books from other cities
• More peer-reviewed acedmic resources than ever

Is the human races (currently) significantly more intelligent than any generation that has preceded us?

People Voted trump.
Not as smart as they think they are

 

[⠀⠀⠀]

you had people invent the light bulb, telephone, electricity. how can you even fathom. those dudes had all day to think and read.




there are too many distractions for our time. motha fukkas are too thirsty these days to even think

 

[AlainLocke]

We have:

• the internet, a GOAT source of information
• more organized libaries that can deliver you books from other cities
• More peer-reviewed acedmic resources than ever

Is the human races (currently) significantly more intelligent than any generation that has preceded us?

Access to information does not equal intelligence...

Intelligence is the ability to learn...

IQs are actually going down...rapidly

Are we becoming more STUPID? IQ scores are decreasing | Daily Mail Online

The Decline In Average I.Q.
The larger the human population grows, the average human I. Q seems to drop. Now how is this possible? Studies show that since the nineteen fifties the average I. Q has dropped a total of three points. This is alarming and confusing at the same time. How with all of our medical and technological advancements is this occurring? Many charts that I have found showed that the average I. Q was at its peak in nineteen fifty that was sixty years ago. Many blame this fall of global I. Q on the fall of the Soviet Union. In the soviet unions control of Eastern Europe, their children were forced to be schooled in far more advanced subjects than modern students. It was a race to attempt to beat the west technologically. In turn the west also made their students study harder and learn more thusly making the average I. Q greatly superior than it had been for many years. Without this compaction the schooling that was installed in a time of panic was called off. Recent studies show that the is now Falling at a rapid rate.

 

[AlainLocke]

Can you explain this in detail a bit more?
I've been obsessed with intelligence for a minute now.

And to answer OP, I don't think we are any smarter but technology has made our attention span shot.

At a certain level, the more wealthy a nation gets...the more intelligent it population gets because they are healthier. Having a reasonably high standard of living for a population is a great way to increase average intelligence...well fluid intelligence.

There are two types of intelligence, fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

Intelligence is simply the ability to learn and apply information, at the most basic level.

Fluid intelligence is the ability to learn and solve problems

Then crystallized intelligence is the ability to recall that information and put it to use.

Fluid intelligence is more genetic based. Actually your intelligence is majority genetic...unless you are born in deplorable conditions...like Afghanistan.

But it is important to note...

That the world is more secure today and safer today than it has ever been...yet the average intelligence of human beings is going down....

And that is because...people with high intelligence...on average globally...live in nations with high standards of living...and they don't have as many children than less intelligent people...

Then also...people are immigrating to high intelligence, high standard of living countries...yet these immigrants come from low intelligent, low standard living of countries...full of young people...meaning that these people reproduce like rabbits

Basically...we are heading into a new dark age...

 

[Hope]

Everyone is so smart their stupid nowadays. Being smart is not the same as intelligence like Charles said above. .

The internet is filled with mis-information. When I was studying in school, some of those peer-reviewed articles only covered a small group; and they were easily refuted or amended by other studies later.

Even still, knowledge with out application, is dead. No spirituality, you just an evil psychopathic narcissist with all the "knowledge" in your head. so what' the point?

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Trump was just elected to office, That should be your answer.