Study: Humans Getting Dumber

[thyme4change]

www.kmjnow.com/pages/landing?Study-Humans-Getting-Dumber=1&blockID=646419&feedID=806

Humans may be gradually losing intelligence, according to a new study.

The study, published (Nov. 12) in the journal Trends in Genetics, argues that humans lost the evolutionary pressure to be smart once we started living in dense agricultural settlements several thousand years ago.

"The development of our intellectual abilities and the optimization of thousands of intelligence genes probably occurred in relatively non-verbal, dispersed groups of peoples [living] before our ancestors emerged from Africa," said study author Gerald Crabtree, a researcher at Stanford University, in a statement.

Since then it's all been downhill, Crabtree contends.

[Angel!]

Makes sense. The other thing that makes sense is we are getting less healthy. With medical advances we save a lot of people that otherwise would have died. Those sickly people go on to reproduce & pass on their sickly genes.

[Phoenix84]

Makes sense if you accept evolution. Our current society doesn't really place many if at all evolutionary factors to weed out the weak and the stupid.

[Tiny]

I don't think that means what you think it means?? Evolution hasn't stopped. It happens a teeny tiny bit with every new generation.


ADDED: ok, read the article... I guess I'm proof.

[vonna]

The Petraeus scandal is a good example of people getting dumber . . . take Paula Broadwell -- valedictorian, Harvard educated, army reserve intel officer who thought she could send anonymous e-mails . . .

[hoops902]

Nov 13, 2012 12:27:02 GMT -5 vonna said:

The Petraeus scandal is a good example of people getting dumber . . . take Paula Broadwell -- valedictorian, Harvard educated, army reserve intel officer who thought she could send anonymous e-mails . . .

I dunno, take a valedictorian Harvard graduate from 100 years ago. That moron didn't even know what email WAS.

[michelyn8]

Nov 13, 2012 12:27:02 GMT -5 vonna said:

The Petraeus scandal is a good example of people getting dumber . . . take Paula Broadwell -- valedictorian, Harvard educated, army reserve intel officer who thought she could send anonymous e-mails . . .

Book sense does not equal common sense/good judgment.

[imawino]

Nov 13, 2012 11:53:28 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

www.kmjnow.com/pages/landing?Study-Humans-Getting-Dumber=1&blockID=646419&feedID=806

Humans may be gradually losing intelligence, according to a new study.

I reached the same conclusion from the highly informal studies I conduct daily!

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

...meanwhile, I'd like to hear more about the control set used for this guy's findings...

[imawino]

Nov 13, 2012 13:48:09 GMT -5 BeenThere...DoneThat... said:

...meanwhile, I'd like to hear more about the control set used for this guy's findings...

Proboards

[thyme4change]

So many things to LOL at in this thread. Thanks everyone!

[NoNamePerson]

And it took a study to figure this out? See there, even the supposedly uber smart people are dumber. They could have just called me

[Virgil Showlion]

No offense to the sociologists and anthropologists among us, but 95% of their work seems to be dredging up increasingly desperate theories about why anybody should give a toot about sociology and anthropology.

Case in point: Dr. Crabtree's latest submission. :-\

[movingforward]

If you go by the crap that is presented on "The Learning Channel" then I would agree our society seems to be getting dumber every year

[Sum Dum Gai]

And its unlikely that the evolutionary advantage of intelligence is greater than it was during our hunter-gatherer past, the paper argues.

"A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his/her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate. Clearly, extreme selection is a thing of the past," the researchers write in the journal article.

This guy is an idiot. While it's true that a Wall Street executive can fuck up and come out with a severance package that's more money than most of us will make in a lifetime, thus making fucking up today vastly less dangerous than fucking up as a hunter gatherer. He's ignoring the amount of intelligence it takes to become a Wall Street executive in the first place. I say that's much harder than making fire, foraging for berries/fungus, fishing, and occasionally hunting large game with a pack of other dudes.

As we all know size does matter, especially when we're talking about the size of a persons bank account, in attracting a mate. So there's still an evolutionary reason to be intelligent. Dumb people, by and large, don't succeed in knowledge based economies like ours. Something the author of this study would understand if he was smart enough to become a Wall Street executive in the first place. Sadly, he's not, so he publishes ridiculous studies like this, makes no money, and probably goes home to an empty house or an ugly wife.

[Bob Ross]

Not to mention, the smarter you are, the more you don't reproduce.

It's now survival of the unfittest in effect.

[damnotagain]

Nov 13, 2012 18:08:48 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

Nov 13, 2012 12:27:02 GMT -5 vonna said:

The Petraeus scandal is a good example of people getting dumber . . . take Paula Broadwell -- valedictorian, Harvard educated, army reserve intel officer who thought she could send anonymous e-mails . . .

You're ignoring a giant contributor to stupidity - lust / emotions. She was reacting from an illogical place to begin with because of her relationship with Patraeus.

She was not thinking outside of her box.

[Taxman10]

Nov 15, 2012 14:41:11 GMT -5 damnotagain said:

Nov 13, 2012 18:08:48 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

You're ignoring a giant contributor to stupidity - lust / emotions. She was reacting from an illogical place to begin with because of her relationship with Patraeus.

She was not thinking outside of her box.

does a women ever??

[wyouser]

So, It isn't just me when I look at my dog and he seems to be getting smarter? Have others among you out there noticed that analomy too?

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"With medical advances we save a lot of people that otherwise would have died. Those sickly people go on to reproduce & pass on their sickly genes.":::...

We discussed this on another thread. 50 years ago, when you had a sickly baby, it died. Now, with advanced technology, and $27/can formula, that baby can live to adulthood. This is spectacular on an individual level. On a macro "species" level, not so much.

I never met my paternal grandfather. He died of something that was a death sentence back in the 60s, but that today is simple outpatient surgery.