Why are people so intellectually challenged?

[braineclipse]

I have trees man, I'm at one with nature. A tree can provide whatever you can. A sheep can provide what ever a woma... lets not get into that actually.

\o/

Pfft!

When was the last time a tree combined oxygen and carbon into carbon dioxide for you?

Useless ****ing trees!

 

[scaramanga]

If stupidity could be wiped out through natural selection like that don't you think it would have happened by now?

When viewed from an evolutionary scale, the human race has got more intelligent. So I'd suggest it has happened, we just wouldn't see it happening in the short space of our lifetimes.

 

[braineclipse]

When viewed from an evolutionary scale, the human race has got more intelligent. So I'd suggest it has happened, we just wouldn't see it happening in the short space of our lifetimes.

What scale are you talking here?

We're not more intelligent evolutionarily than the generation preceding us. But we are more intelligent than the ancestor that we share with the apes a million or so years ago.

But are we more intelligent than humans were 200 years ago? 2000 years ago? 10000 years ago? (evolutionarily speaking, so the potential intelligence in our genetic makeup)

 

[scaramanga]

What scale are you talking here?

We're not more intelligent evolutionarily than the generation preceding us. But we are more intelligent than the ancestor that we share with the apes a million or so years ago.

But are we more intelligent than humans were 200 years ago? 2000 years ago? 10000 years ago? (evolutionarily speaking, so the potential intelligence in our genetic makeup)

Sorry, Human Race was the wrong term - I'm talking a larger scale than that. What is clear though, is that intelligence has been a preferential trait - possibly at the cost of the more traditional hunter/gatherer traits. That's not just as a survival method, but also a partner-selection one.

Anyway, I'm far more concerned with the apparent lack of motivation to not be stupid that's so prevalent amongst the current generation of **** music, **** drugs, seatbelt-wearing pansies that make up the "youth of today" - as mentioned in the TV thread.

 

[Andyandy]

It is difficult to say that generally we are more intelligent than ever before, however for the last 130 years or so the west has lived in the age of reason meaning that we are much more able to advance technology and human understanding than ever before.

In addition there are more highly skill university graduates than ever before meaning that the current rate of human advancement exceeds that of any time in human evolution. I once read that the current advancement is is 10 times greater than in the 1960s, this undermines many of the arguments about golden ages above.

Nevertheless society is ever more separated by those with and those without. The main differentiator is education and those who haven't taken part are likely to pass this attitude onto their kids. These people are the ones on benefits.

Finally, there is no serious correlation between genetics and intelligence, intelligence is largely environmentally obtained through education and attitude toward learning.

 

[Hotshot-Tottenham]

Sorry, Human Race was the wrong term - I'm talking a larger scale than that. What is clear though, is that intelligence has been a preferential trait - possibly at the cost of the more traditional hunter/gatherer traits. That's not just as a survival method, but also a partner-selection one.

Anyway, I'm far more concerned with the apparent lack of motivation to not be stupid that's so prevalent amongst the current generation of **** music, **** drugs, seatbelt-wearing pansies that make up the "youth of today" - as mentioned in the TV thread.

Yeah, because wearing a seatbelt makes you gay, right?

 

[scaramanga]

Yeah, because wearing a seatbelt makes you gay, right?

It's more that the current generation don't even want to try and rebel. I actually always wear a seatbelt, my comment was more on the mindless acceptance that our generation has told them to do something so they do it.

The thing that brought it to mind was a clip I recently saw from one of those ghastly Twilight films where the (supposedly dangerous and desirable) male character made a show of getting his (quite manly looking) poa to put on her seatbelt before they got into a car chase. In a fvcking Volvo.

It's a perfect metaphor for the generation that does laughing gas from balloons instead of a handful of pills and a bottle of JD. The generation that instead of listening to The Stones, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana or the Stone Roses are listening to whiny ginger cvnts playing mummy's guitar and making Coldplay seem racy.

I know that as a grumpy old cvnt it's my role in life to bemoan how much that generation acts up and pretend we were angels in my day but fvck, this generation is just so ****ing bland it's scary. I truly feel sorry for them as many of them will never properly learn what it's like to be young.

 

[braineclipse]

Sorry, Human Race was the wrong term - I'm talking a larger scale than that. What is clear though, is that intelligence has been a preferential trait - possibly at the cost of the more traditional hunter/gatherer traits. That's not just as a survival method, but also a partner-selection one.

Anyway, I'm far more concerned with the apparent lack of motivation to not be stupid that's so prevalent amongst the current generation of **** music, **** drugs, seatbelt-wearing pansies that make up the "youth of today" - as mentioned in the TV thread.

Intelligence has bean a preferential trait for sure, for humans. If that extends to sexual selection is arguable, but not unreasonable or really particularly relevant to this discussion I think.

I do think a lot of what we currently think of as intelligence is more of a byproduct of evolution than something that was selected for, if that makes any sense.

It is difficult to say that generally we are more intelligent than ever before, however for the last 130 years or so the west has lived in the age of reason meaning that we are much more able to advance technology and human understanding than ever before.

In addition there are more highly skill university graduates than ever before meaning that the current rate of human advancement exceeds that of any time in human evolution. I once read that the current advancement is is 10 times greater than in the 1960s, this undermines many of the arguments about golden ages above.

Nevertheless society is ever more separated by those with and those without. The main differentiator is education and those who haven't taken part are likely to pass this attitude onto their kids. These people are the ones on benefits.

Finally, there is no serious correlation between genetics and intelligence, intelligence is largely environmentally obtained through education and attitude toward learning.

What's your source for the last claim you make? I was under the impression that heritability of intelligence was fairly well accepted.

No doubt that what we think of as intelligence is very much influenced by environmental factors. I don't think there's much if any relevant genetic difference between us and some dirt poor illiterate farmers during the dark ages, but we would score very differently on an IQ test and perform very differently in most intelligence tests. This doesn't mean that there's not genetic variation between individuals though.

What is the time period you're referring to when societies were less separated between those with and those without? I can't think of many periods or societies where that would be the case.

It's more that the current generation don't even want to try and rebel. I actually always wear a seatbelt, my comment was more on the mindless acceptance that our generation has told them to do something so they do it.

The thing that brought it to mind was a clip I recently saw from one of those ghastly Twilight films where the (supposedly dangerous and desirable) male character made a show of getting his (quite manly looking) poa to put on her seatbelt before they got into a car chase. In a fvcking Volvo.

It's a perfect metaphor for the generation that does laughing gas from balloons instead of a handful of pills and a bottle of JD. The generation that instead of listening to The Stones, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana or the Stone Roses are listening to whiny ginger cvnts playing mummy's guitar and making Coldplay seem racy.

I know that as a grumpy old cvnt it's my role in life to bemoan how much that generation acts up and pretend we were angels in my day but fvck, this generation is just so ****ing bland it's scary. I truly feel sorry for them as many of them will never properly learn what it's like to be young.

This is a more valid complaint I think! Although again the fault is again with the adult generation.

 

[Daisuk]

It's more that the current generation don't even want to try and rebel. I actually always wear a seatbelt, my comment was more on the mindless acceptance that our generation has told them to do something so they do it.

The thing that brought it to mind was a clip I recently saw from one of those ghastly Twilight films where the (supposedly dangerous and desirable) male character made a show of getting his (quite manly looking) poa to put on her seatbelt before they got into a car chase. In a fvcking Volvo.

It's a perfect metaphor for the generation that does laughing gas from balloons instead of a handful of pills and a bottle of JD. The generation that instead of listening to The Stones, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana or the Stone Roses are listening to whiny ginger cvnts playing mummy's guitar and making Coldplay seem racy.

I know that as a grumpy old cvnt it's my role in life to bemoan how much that generation acts up and pretend we were angels in my day but fvck, this generation is just so ****ing bland it's scary. I truly feel sorry for them as many of them will never properly learn what it's like to be young.

I don't know. I think there are still people who are rebelling along those lines, opposing the establishment, but it might not seem as "fresh" or exciting as it used to back in the day, we're used to it now, so no-one really cares. If you could imagine a way of rebelling today that you would "applaud" or think was fitting for the times, what would/could it be? There doesn't seem to be the mass-movement rebellions anymore (like the 60/70's hippie movement, for instance, which was largely a fashionable fad anyway), but maybe that's a good thing. We're getting used to being democratic, tolerant and "progressive", nothing shocks us anymore (unless it involves some weird sexual practise or excrements or killing babies, or what have you, but hardly worthy rebellious causes).

 

[dawaxman]

What if being intelligent is not helpful in the human race's evolution? What if the so-called 'thickies' are more capable of the necessary requirements for survival: procreation/food/drink/shelter because they are unencumbered by the stuff clogging up the intelligent persons mind like why am I here?/what is GHod?/is global peace possible?

Perhaps being 'basic' is best?

 

[braineclipse]

I don't know. I think there are still people who are rebelling along those lines, opposing the establishment, but it might not seem as "fresh" or exciting as it used to back in the day, we're used to it now, so no-one really cares. If you could imagine a way of rebelling today that you would "applaud" or think was fitting for the times, what would/could it be? There doesn't seem to be the mass-movement rebellions anymore (like the 60/70's hippie movement, for instance, which was largely a fashionable fad anyway), but maybe that's a good thing. We're getting used to being democratic, tolerant and "progressive", nothing shocks us anymore (unless it involves some weird sexual practise or excrements or killing babies, or what have you, but hardly worthy rebellious causes).

Yeah, the "joke" is that you essentially have to listen to elevator music really quietly whilst shining your shoes to rebel against the current parent generation.

There are certainly still causes though, but probably not as unifying as others have been in the past.

 

[7percent]

What scale are you talking here?

We're not more intelligent evolutionarily than the generation preceding us. But we are more intelligent than the ancestor that we share with the apes a million or so years ago.

But are we more intelligent than humans were 200 years ago? 2000 years ago? 10000 years ago? (evolutionarily speaking, so the potential intelligence in our genetic makeup)

Apparently we're not much smarter than the cave men of 36,000 years ago. We've had agriculture and an industrial revolution etc etc since then. If you brought up a cave man baby in today's world it would cope.

The most intelligent creatures also happen to be in the middle of the food chain. Some birds are shockingly intelligent, randomly octopuses are really clever too.. It stems from having to watch out for predators while also having to keep on top of business.

Are dolphins in the middle of the food chain? what eats dolphins? other than us? I guess being social helps intelligence too.

I was reading an interesting article about play the other day. It appears by making all play areas uniformly 'safe' we've bred a generation of people who can't respond to risks in their environment as readily because the idea of a nail sticking out at an angle would just BLOW THEIR MINDS. Also play is important in socialising as a child, you want to play sword fights with the other little kid but he won't play swordfights with you if you hurt him. You have to find a balance which will make you both happy.

In short we've got a whole generation of people who SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO GO OUTSIDE OR INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER.

For further reading google supernormal stimulus and find out how our brains are becoming accustomed to extreme **** and fast food etc in a way that when we end up doing anything satisfying for ourselves it's not as pleasurable. Bit depressing really.

 

[Daisuk]

Haha, yes, exactly. I agree though, there are thankfully still worthy causes, and there are still (a lot of) people doing non-mainstream things.

 

[braineclipse]

What if being intelligent is not helpful in the human race's evolution? What if the so-called 'thickies' are more capable of the necessary requirements for survival: procreation/food/drink/shelter because they are unencumbered by the stuff clogging up the intelligent persons mind like why am I here?/what is GHod?/is global peace possible?

Perhaps being 'basic' is best?

Certainly a possibility.

The vast majority of species on this planet do not qualify in any way for what we would call intelligence and evolutionarily speaking man/most are doing perfectly fine. It's possible that long term we would have been better off with a higher rate of neanderthal in our human DNA, and we do have some neanderthal DNA in us as a result of inter-speices prehistoric fun times. If not for them rather rudely dying out, or quite possibly just as rudely letting themselves get genocided to death by our human ancestors, our mix could be slightly further towards the neanderthal side of the scale and we would possibly be better off long term without nuclear weapons, carbon emissions, modern pop music etc.

 

[dawaxman]

Certainly a possibility.

The vast majority of species on this planet do not qualify in any way for what we would call intelligence and evolutionarily speaking man/most are doing perfectly fine. It's possible that long term we would have been better off with a higher rate of neanderthal in our human DNA, and we do have some neanderthal DNA in us as a result of inter-speices prehistoric fun times. If not for them rather rudely dying out, or quite possibly just as rudely letting themselves get genocided to death by our human ancestors, our mix could be slightly further towards the neanderthal side of the scale and we would possibly be better off long term without nuclear weapons, carbon emissions, modern pop music etc.

I love how you group nuclear weapons and carbon emissions with pop music!

 

[braineclipse]

Apparently we're not much smarter than the cave men of 36,000 years ago. We've had agriculture and an industrial revolution etc etc since then. If you brought up a cave man baby in today's world it would cope.

The most intelligent creatures also happen to be in the middle of the food chain. Some birds are shockingly intelligent, randomly octopuses are really clever too.. It stems from having to watch out for predators while also having to keep on top of business.

Are dolphins in the middle of the food chain? what eats dolphins? other than us? I guess being social helps intelligence too.

I was reading an interesting article about play the other day. It appears by making all play areas uniformly 'safe' we've bred a generation of people who can't respond to risks in their environment as readily because the idea of a nail sticking out at an angle would just BLOW THEIR MINDS. Also play is important in socialising as a child, you want to play sword fights with the other little kid but he won't play swordfights with you if you hurt him. You have to find a balance which will make you both happy.

In short we've got a whole generation of people who SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO GO OUTSIDE OR INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER.

For further reading google supernormal stimulus and find out how our brains are becoming accustomed to extreme **** and fast food etc in a way that when we end up doing anything satisfying for ourselves it's not as pleasurable. Bit depressing really.

My understanding of the evolution of intelligence is rudimentary, but from what I know it's very difficult to estimate or know the intelligence of earlier humans as the brain, central nervous system is essentially all soft tissue and doesn't last or fossilize. DNA also degenerates fairly quickly. So direct comparisons are very difficult. Essentially early humans could quite possibly be essentially the same as us, neanderthals might also be a lot smarter than they classically get credit for.

Sounds like a similar article to a podcast I listened to not that long ago, think it was a To the Best of Our Knowledge podcast, discussing play and the importance of free play. Very interesting topic for sure, although some caution is warranted about making strong conclusions imo.

I love how you group nuclear weapons and carbon emissions with pop music!

Cheers, although arguably nuclear weapons have been a much bigger net positive for humanity than pop music so it might be a bit harsh

 

[OleBoot]

Human intelligence is now in decline. Human intellect peaked in 1946 with the invention of the bikini.

 

[Notmegov]

It's a perfect metaphor for the generation that does laughing gas from balloons instead of a handful of pills and a bottle of JD. The generation that instead of listening to The Stones, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana or the Stone Roses are listening to whiny ginger cvnts playing mummy's guitar and making Coldplay seem racy.

I know that as a grumpy old cvnt it's my role in life to bemoan how much that generation acts up and pretend we were angels in my day but fvck, this generation is just so ****ing bland it's scary. I truly feel sorry for them as many of them will never properly learn what it's like to be young.

Brilliant.


Sent from my GT-N8010 using Fapatalk

 

[Andyandy]

It's more that the current generation don't even want to try and rebel. I actually always wear a seatbelt, my comment was more on the mindless acceptance that our generation has told them to do something so they do it.

The thing that brought it to mind was a clip I recently saw from one of those ghastly Twilight films where the (supposedly dangerous and desirable) male character made a show of getting his (quite manly looking) poa to put on her seatbelt before they got into a car chase. In a fvcking Volvo.

It's a perfect metaphor for the generation that does laughing gas from balloons instead of a handful of pills and a bottle of JD. The generation that instead of listening to The Stones, Black Sabbath, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana or the Stone Roses are listening to whiny ginger cvnts playing mummy's guitar and making Coldplay seem racy.

I know that as a grumpy old cvnt it's my role in life to bemoan how much that generation acts up and pretend we were angels in my day but fvck, this generation is just so ****ing bland it's scary. I truly feel sorry for them as many of them will never properly learn what it's like to be young.[

I would say that the music is bland and this is also reflected in the fashion and clothing...it appears to be more about over grooming and guy liner. Hardly rebellious.

Maybe they don't need to rebel as they can just post the angst on twitter!

 

[scaramanga]

I would say that the music is bland and this is also reflected in the fashion and clothing...it appears to be more about over grooming and guy liner. Hardly rebellious.

Maybe they don't need to rebel as they can just post the angst on twitter!

I think that maybe blandness is their rebellion. The best way to rebel against our excesses of the 90s is to turn down smoking, drinking, drugs and any kind of risk.

I suspect the scene that comes along to blow it all away will be like when punk killed off disco (the worst music scene there's ever been).