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

Tend to agree.

I look at ancient Jewish customs that people pooh pooh, yet they understood more about combating disease and infection than we do now.

They didn't understand the disease itself, and they didn't have drugs, just simple procedures to prevent spread of it.
What I mean is considering what they had, technology and tool wise, they had more wisdom than we do now.

With all we have we can prevent say... Aids, but as a society we want freedom of expression so we don't follow wise protocol and look what happens. That's just one small example. The modern human is weak willed and pathetic. What farcical is we think we are sooooo wise....which actually makes us fools.

Take the universe. The more we know, the less we understand.

Originally posted by ErroneousDylan

Controversial study suggests human intelligence peaked several thousand years ago and we've been on an intellectual and emotional decline ever since

www.independent.co.uk

Professor Gerald Crabtree, who heads a genetics laboratory at Stanford University in California, has put forward the iconoclastic idea that rather than getting cleverer, human intelligence peaked several thousand years ago and from then on there has been a slow decline in our intellectual and emotional abilities.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ever since travel was easy through out the world so to speak via boats, planes, cars, and the like tech has been hoarded and people have been controlled. I don't think we are getting more stupid it's just the very smart are getting smarter and the rest are just brain washed and not living to their potential. If people shared tech the world would be so much farther along. The US has it so that if you want to use the good equipment then you must come to the US instead of making hundreds of the equipment and sending them world wide. Lease them out to other countries and make some money instead of gouging the american people because we demand the best stuff. Everyone worldwide should have access to the best equipment for research.

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.....

The industrial revolution was the result of a few land owners, who had the laws changed (inclosure laws), forcing the 'commoners' off "their" land, not the advancement of human intelligence.

It was a move that set us back, not move us forward. It was simply what the commoners had been doing for themselves for centuries concentrated in the private property of the land owners, and exploited for financial gain, not to advance the Human Race intellectually.

It's funny reading comments in here on how people think that "education" has anything to do with intelligence, You're so brainwashed ha ha ha. Much love

reply to post by ProperlyErrant


Thank you. The voice of reason.

When the telephone started making it into every household early 1900s, a new mental illness was created. Women who spent time during the day talking to their friends on the phone rather than make dinner all day for their family was considered insane. They got shock treatment.

Clearly, it didn't work.

reply to post by OlafMiacov

...For the Raven's Progressive Matrices test, subjects born over a 100 year period were compared in Des Moines, Iowa, and separately in Dumfries, Scotland. Improvements were remarkably consistent across the whole period, in both countries.[1] This effect of an apparent increase in IQ has also been observed in various other parts of the world, though the rates of increase vary.[2]

It stands to reason that if intellect has steadily increased in the previously measured ~100-yrs., overall, we may be a little more intelligent than our ancestors a few millenia ago.

Erm, no. What's increased is "cultural standardization." Think about it.

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Decline indicates something bad. Differentiation isn't such a loaded term and would merely indicate a different kind of intelligence rather than something bad.

It's an interesting theory, I don't really buy it as thousands of years ago humans openly and wantonly committed acts that would make our civilization pale such as rape, murder and theft.

Hate to be that guy that bursts your bubble......BUT....Humans murder, pillage and rape now more than ever..you must live in a very quiet neck of the globe. But I doubt half the planet would say things are less violent now than they were thousands of years ago.

Originally posted by ErroneousDylan

Controversial study suggests human intelligence peaked several thousand years ago and we've been on an intellectual and emotional decline ever since

www.independent.co.uk

Professor Gerald Crabtree, who heads a genetics laboratory at Stanford University in California, has put forward the iconoclastic idea that rather than getting cleverer, human intelligence peaked several thousand years ago and from then on there has been a slow decline in our intellectual and emotional abilities.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ummm........isn't that the plan? Flouride, corn syrup, mercury vapor....etc., etc., etc. Wouldn't several thousand years ago coincide with the rise of ruling classes and the ruled? In order to keep that herd mentality flourishing, the wolves would no doubt have bred those low brow supplicant traits into the kneelers...

YouSir

I'm fine with that. Individuals with incredibly extremely high IQs tend to be more socially awkward and eccentric in our society. I couldn't imagine if all of us grew to be that way.

Originally posted by TiM3LoRd

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Decline indicates something bad. Differentiation isn't such a loaded term and would merely indicate a different kind of intelligence rather than something bad.

It's an interesting theory, I don't really buy it as thousands of years ago humans openly and wantonly committed acts that would make our civilization pale such as rape, murder and theft.

Hate to be that guy that bursts your bubble......BUT....Humans murder, pillage and rape now more than ever..you must live in a very quiet neck of the globe. But I doubt half the planet would say things are less violent now than they were thousands of years ago.

They are. If you read history books during the Middle Ages, things were extremely violent, moreso than today. We're actually at the least violent time of the Earth as far as percentage of the population. There may be more people being killed because we have a higher population, but as far as percentage of violence to the population, it is much lower.

reply to post by antonia


Good point, though I don't know if anyone has ever tried to find out whether a sperm whale is smarter or not.

As an addendum to my diet point though, lots of degenerative diseases like MS and Alzheimer's seem to respond to a change in diet, perhaps there is cause for concern, after all, your brain can only be made from what you eat.

reply to post by antonia

Antonia wrote:

" thousands of years ago humans openly and wantonly committed acts that would make our civilization pale such as rape, murder and theft. "This happens today, no? i mean, people even film it now and you can find it on youtube until it gets taken down.

I wonder what the rape and murder rates were in the 1870s-1900s period in America vs what they were in the 1970-2000 time period in America.

I bet the % is higher in the more recent period - regardless of population.

Here is a graph of american homicide rates estimation in history.




marginalrevolution.com...


In more distant past, violence and homicide was much more prevalent than today.

reply to post by SymbolicLogic


I didn't say you're inbred, just not as purebred. More ethnicity has its benefits, but it's much more random selective breeding and further away from pure roots. That's why Netherlanders are 4 inches (on average) taller than their white American counterparts yet both are of European descent (studies show it's largely genetics with them not crossbreeding as much) and they're much healthier (although that variable can't be separated from lifestyle). That's why purebred horses are so valued in professional racing. That's what the whole Aryan concept was built around and why many of our Presidents and leaders are related. It's why Princess Diana was killed when she started dating Muslim men and was likely going to marry one (Dodi). Her own mother called her a whore and despised her for it. You may never understand how serious it is. As controversial and prejudice as it may sound (since the modern brainwashed masses like to believe we're all "born equal"), there are genetically superior groups of people compared to others. That's what your entire society has been built upon, as it was thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt. Whether you're aware of it or not, your leaders certainly are, and heavily adopted a eugenics approach long before even WWII. That's why they seek mass sterilization techniques through water, food, vaccines, etc. and want to indoctrinate people into breeding less with programs like Planned Parenthood or Agenda 21 while they keep the power within their controlled lineages.

Originally posted by brettrix
reply to post by antonia

 

Antonia wrote:

" thousands of years ago humans openly and wantonly committed acts that would make our civilization pale such as rape, murder and theft. "This happens today, no? i mean, people even film it now and you can find it on youtube until it gets taken down.

I wonder what the rape and murder rates were in the 1870s-1900s period in America vs what they were in the 1970-2000 time period in America.

I bet the % is higher in the more recent period - regardless of population.

But we don't have crucifixion anymore. We don't behead people anymore. I suppose we hang them, but before they would behead them in the town square. We don't have gladiator battles, where we'd watch people battle each other to the death anymore. We don't have soldiers going around slaughtering innocent farmers anymore. Perhaps we do have that last one, but the rest of the world tends to stand up against that sort of behavior. Back then it was common place, and if someone slaughtered your peasants, you would just go and slaughter theirs and call it justice. Perhaps this is still going on in the Middle East, but before it was going on all over Europe too. I suppose we have terrorism, but if you look at the statistics, you are a lot less likely to die from terrorism today than you were to die from murder from some enemy kingdom or fiefdom back in the Middle Ages.

Originally posted by Xaberz

Originally posted by TiM3LoRd

Originally posted by antonia
reply to post by ErroneousDylan

 

Decline indicates something bad. Differentiation isn't such a loaded term and would merely indicate a different kind of intelligence rather than something bad.

It's an interesting theory, I don't really buy it as thousands of years ago humans openly and wantonly committed acts that would make our civilization pale such as rape, murder and theft.

Hate to be that guy that bursts your bubble......BUT....Humans murder, pillage and rape now more than ever..you must live in a very quiet neck of the globe. But I doubt half the planet would say things are less violent now than they were thousands of years ago.

They are. If you read history books during the Middle Ages, things were extremely violent, moreso than today. We're actually at the least violent time of the Earth as far as percentage of the population. There may be more people being killed because we have a higher population, but as far as percentage of violence to the population, it is much lower.

I'll be sure to let the family and friends of all the billions of people killed in civil wars know that statistically they are better off now than they would have been a thousand years ago.

Also the middle ages was not thousands of years ago

Originally posted by Xaberz
I'm fine with that. Individuals with incredibly extremely high IQs tend to be more socially awkward and eccentric in our society. I couldn't imagine if all of us grew to be that way.

Yeah but I think that is generally caused by other peoples attitude towards you.

Smart kids are bullied.

"They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool" John Lennon

reply to post by Xaberz


There is less violence in the world, perhaps, but that doesn't mean humans are any less violent, and therefore any more intelligent.

It is merely the law system and social standards that keep people from acting upon their violent thoughts. Many people are mentally sick, I would wager probably more so than past times because of the poisonous world we live in today, and I can assure you if there were no repercussions, they would act just as vile.

In fact, I would dare say that the lack of violence on a small degree could make things worse. Kind of like bottling up until your cap blows off. Hear me out before you judge me, however.

When the fight or flight response is triggered, in most situations, we do neither fight or flight. We usually just stand around or hide, causing chemicals to remain in our body and wreaking havoc, which also weakens the mind. If we were to actually run or fight in a situation like that, our exercise would remove the chemicals and cause the body to remain healthy. Now.. it's best that we never get in a situation that causes the fight or flight response to trigger but it happens all too often.

I used to get in a scuffle with out boys if we got mad at each other, and afterwards we would become friends because we settled it plus removed bodily toxins. Nowadays, people just get angry, stay silent or argue, and hold a grudge, possibly letting it build up until they do something crazy. I'm not advocating fighting in any way, but that's how it used to be for me growing up. It used to be common for men to do this back in olden times as well, like Abraham Lincoln. Animals naturally do this without thinking twice then go about their lives without ever thinking about it again.

Regardless, the point I'm trying to make is humans in today's society bottle a lot up inside of them and that can be unhealthy and lead to even worse thoughts. There is nothing that says that humans are less violent in nature than they were back in the times you say were worse. There is just a penalty for it now. Even still there are plenty of cases of people doing terrible things to each other.

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


I went to my doctor. He told me that I have nerves connected to my muscles. My fibromyalgia is because the nerves, connected to my muscles, become irritated. I told my doctor about Lyrica™.

My fibromyalgia, my Lyrica™!

reply to post by ErroneousDylan


With even less science behind it than their research, my thinking is that, as a whole, we have "transfered" much of our knowledge to "machines", and now dedicate those "brain resources" to other things. Where, on average, we may be sinking in intelligence, I believe it is because more of that brain resource is being channeled to diversion, largely in the form of television and low-thought-process games (like those -ville games, etc. Which so many people are strangely obsessed with.) i'm not anti-game or television, and some "mindlessness" is good for the mind I believe, but I don't categorize Jersey Shore the same as Homeland, for example, or Mafia Wars the same as a deep strategy RPG like Final Fantasy XI or many of the war/empire building strategy games.

I do believe that the vast majority of the population avoids thinking pursuits at any cost, whether its learning a new skill, reading books, critical-thinking games, or even thought-provoking television. I believe there are many of humans with far greater intellect than people thousand, hundreds, or even tens of years ago, but the vast majority are much, much lower in intellect. Intellectual pursuits have become more optional over time, and only those who really want to "exercise their brain" do.

Maybe there is only so much IQ to go around, hence the smaller portion of people of greater intellect every year. That is, in my own completely unscientific observation/hypothesis.