Stanford U Prof: Humanity is getting dumber

[USS Redskins]

Yeah, can’t believe almost half the country voted for that Romney guy.

Seriously though, get out of here with that crap. Enough of the bitterness, it’s over, move on. Don’t troll threads that have nothing to do with politics.

Sheesh - cant take a joke or what?

Lighten up, junior.

[Special K]

I concur...

[GhostofSparta]

Hmm, that ancient Athenian flag must be around here somewhere...

[elkabong82]

A husband and wife who both have Harvard degrees may have a kid or two, or may even decide not to have kids. Bubba and his wife who life in a trailer park might have 5 to 10 kids. Not sure how that allows us to genetically evolve.

because smart kids only come from smart backgrounds and never from low income families

[Jumbo]

Sheesh - cant take a joke or what?

Lighten up, junior.

First, 1215 is more right than not.

Second, personally, I don't think you were joking.

And third, know that you actually could be nailed for the gratuitously derisive "junior" remark, in this context.

Something I think 1215 probably recognizes for a couple he's had laid on him over the years.



To the topic, I don't think "humanity is getting dumber." We do have much more coverage of much more of humanity, so we get to notice a lot more dumb a lot more often. And the ranks of the extreme seem to have been swelling in many matters. With the internet, the seriously crazy, the abysmally stupid, and the developmentally pathetic, all have a much bigger platform and highly magnified opportunity to find the like-minded, than when they were limited to 3D land.

Such folk are much more ostracized (or even likely to be pummeled) in 3D land.

[pjfootballer]

I don't think people are getting dumber, but "common sense" has gotten worse.

[twa]

a Harvard man has a solution

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

Wanted: 'Adventurous woman' to give birth to Neanderthal man - Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2IccFL158
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He says Neanderthals were not the lumbering brutes of the stereotype, but highly intelligent. Their brains were roughly the same size as man’s, and they made primitive tools.

Cloning the caveman: Geneticist Professor George Church
He believes his project could benefit mankind.
He told German magazine Der Spiegel: ‘Neanderthals might think differently than we do. They could even be more intelligent than us.
‘When the time comes to deal with an epidemic or getting off the planet, it’s conceivable that their way of thinking could be beneficial.’
Scientists say that his plan is theoretically possible, although in Britain, like most countries, human reproductive cloning is a criminal offence.
But Professor Church’s proposal is so cutting-edge that it may not be covered by existing laws

[AsburySkinsFan]

When I hear people say we're smarter and point to our scientific/technological achievements I find myself asking if we're really smarter of if we're just standing on the shoulders of giants which allows us to see farther.

That said, what would the recommendations be for improving the wisdom of society?
FWIW you can tell he's got a real affinity for the ancient Greeks which may or not be clouding his judgment.

[sacase]

I wouldn't say we are getting dumber, I think people are smarter than ever. I think emotionally we are regressing and many cannot handle the stress of life. I think we have removed many of the factors that have removed bad genes from the gene pool, in fact we have encouraged these bad genes to flourish. Perhaps if life was more harsh we would be better equipped to handle many of the problems. I am just speculating though. I still think natural selection is working. Yes we allow more of the "bad" genes to hand around, however, our basic instincts are still at work. I still think our choice of mates is influenced subconsciously to what we believe is a good match genetically. SO essentially we are still progressing, we just have more of the chaff hanging around.

[wysknz1]

I don't know if we're getting dumber or just lazy and less educated. Try taking the 8th grade exit exam from the 1940's or so. My dad didn't finish high school and is more educated than a lot of college educated kids I know. The math he knows amazes me still.

[Prosperity]

I don't know if we're getting dumber or just lazy and less educated. Try taking the 8th grade exit exam from the 1940's or so. My dad didn't finish high school and is more educated than a lot of college educated kids I know. The math he knows amazes me still.

Maybe it is because your dad is smart, and is old enough to have spent a lifetime (compared to the young lives of college students anyway) learning new stuff.

[Warhead36]

I don't think people are getting dumber per se, I think we're just more and more reliant on technology which reduces our need to use our brains.

[Bang]

Familiarity breeds contempt.

i don't know if reliance on technology forces us to use less of our brains,, if it did technoplogy would stand still.. but it doesn't.. technology progresses exponentially.
Our minds are just gearing towards different realities.
We're in a shift period.. an awakening to a new reality.. the beginning of the technological age.


I always see these ridiculous memes on my facebook page about an 8th grader in 1890 who could write and spell etc etc etc... and of course she's held up to kids of today, who they claim don't write or spell well...and thus the old days kids were better.
And there's a total ignorance of the medium being used to promote this myth which has changed the world, brought people together communicating via the written word more than anything since probably the invention of the printing press... and it was invented by a kid in his dorm room.

The world is pretty amazing.

~Bang

[jpillian]

Wait a sec. The OP interrupted my American Idol rerun marathon for this?

[Destino]

I think that there are simply less filters than ever before. This applies to both accessing and sharing knowledge. There was a time when advanced levels of any particular field were reached only by students that earned it. Now we simply pull up information on string theory, typically a video because we hate reading anything longer than a paragraph, and form opinions in the subject.