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OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

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    OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

    People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

    What I find odd, though, is that they use reaction time in pushing a button as a rough gauge of human intelligence. You'd think, with all the button pushing we do these days, and fast reaction games we play on computers, that reaction time should be going down... if for no other reason than practice, practice, practice...
    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.


    #2
    Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

    I sure do think that proves that SOMEONE'S getting dumber, but it ain't the rest of us.

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      #3
      Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

      I'm mildly curious how this test is designed. Also curious if there are other signs of inherited intelligence that they can test for and the data would conflict.
      life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

      Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

      "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

      John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

      "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

      Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


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        #4
        Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

        I can't think of any right off the top of my head, but I know there are a studies out there showing that people with higher intelligence tend to have fewer children. So it's like the line from the Harvey Danger song, "Only stupid people are breeding..."

        It's one of the things I hear from my family regarding my decision to be child-free: "It's so selfish of you to refuse to have kids. You're so smart! Not having kids is depriving the world of your intelligent genes!" Yeah, I'm smart enough to weigh the rest of my genetic code against the slim chance of bearing super-geniuses.
        The forum member formerly known as perzephone. Or Perze. I've shed a skin.

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          #5
          Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

          I think it might have to do with our choices of hobbies. Back in earlier times, people had to use their brains to entertain themselves. If you were bored, you would learn to play an instrument, or read a book, or write poetry, or sew, etc. etc. Nowadays, if you're bored you can just flip on a TV and rot your brains out with Honey Honey Boo Boo or what have you.
          Intelligence can be somewhat "use it or lose it", I think.

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            #6
            Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

            I just do not understand what pushing a button has to with being intelligent. I think NOT being a button pusher might be construed as being intelligent. I mean a monkey can be trained to push buttons after all. And the term "Code monkey comes to mind"
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              #7
              Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

              Originally posted by anunitu View Post
              I just do not understand what pushing a button has to with being intelligent. I think NOT being a button pusher might be construed as being intelligent. I mean a monkey can be trained to push buttons after all. And the term "Code monkey comes to mind"
              You raise an excellent point. Intelligence is much more complex and multifaceted than button pushing speed.

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                #8
                Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

                Originally posted by iflewoverthecuckoosnest View Post
                You raise an excellent point. Intelligence is much more complex and multifaceted than button pushing speed.
                this!

                /10 char
                Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                  #9
                  Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

                  Makes me think of someone trying to judge a computer purely on processor speed.

                  Sure the processor is important but there's a host of other factors that impact everything.

                  Even if reactions accurately depict how quickly your brain can process something and trigger a response, they are other factors.
                  life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                  Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                  "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                  John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                  "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                  Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: OK, it's proved. We're getting dumber.

                    I think it might have to do with our choices of hobbies. Back in earlier times, people had to use their brains to entertain themselves. If you were bored, you would learn to play an instrument, or read a book, or write poetry, or sew, etc. etc. Nowadays, if you're bored you can just flip on a TV and rot your brains out with Honey Honey Boo Boo or what have you.
                    Intelligence can be somewhat "use it or lose it", I think.
                    I agree with this post 100%. An unused mind, like an unused body, will atrophy and waste away. People who watch Jersey Shore and read gossip rags are really just eating fast food for the brain.
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