What really prompted this is an add that popped up while I was on this site, it had this IQ test thing, now I know those aren't official but the average was 85. That's 15 points below average. Now, to put this into perspective, your considered to be smart with an IQ of 110, that's just a 10 point change. It seems to me that so many things lately have been caused by, quite frankly, people just being stupid. Like when a person holds up a bank while he has a plastic bag over his head and doesn't cut airholes in the bag. Things like this make me wonder, are we truly getting smarter or are we going the opposite direction. From what i've read, studies show that people are becoming smarter, but is this true? Perhaps it's just that we know how the human mind works better than we used to, thus our education has been changed to fit how we learn. However, even when people pass a test or quiz in school, they forget the information by the next day. I have a very good example of this. In chemistry, we were learning polyatomic ions, and we took a quiz. The majority of the class did well. We retook the quiz the next day because our teacher really wants us to know about them and the majority of the class failed. Is temporairily memorizing something considered learning? Does anyone else have some examples or research that could help on this subject?
I should have named this thread differently but it didn't occur to me until a few seconds after I pressed ok. The real title should be, :Are people becoming more or less intelligent. Anyways, things like
"this cup is hot" and "dont put your head out the train window"
This just makes it so that all the non-intelligent people don't end up killing themselves by doing retarted things LIKE touching a red hot stove or sticking your head out of a train going 80 miles an hour or something. Today's economy and social neccatations make it possible for the less intelligent to live. It's cruel, I know, but in nature, anything that isn't smart/capable enough to live dies because it has not either adapted or is not smart enough to adapt and thus dies. If left to their own devices, people who seek thrills would probably end up severely hurting themselves, and if it was in nature, that sever injury would lead to death. We as humans defy nature, because we are afraid of death, because it is an unknown. I personally think, after a good deal of thought, that the human race IS becoming more evolved, smarter, but the ratio of less intelligent people to more intelligent people is severely off key, with nature not being able to fulfill itself, instead of having 5 less intelligent people to 1 intelligent person, it seems to be more of 10000 people to one intelligent person.
Ah, but others would argue that public schooling has made the general public MORE informed and knowledgeable.
We think we are more informed, cause we have easier access to knowledge. We usually know more things about specific topics (when you study nowadays for example chemistry you will know way more things about chemistry than the persons who studied 20 years ago), but more you learn about something less you learn about the rest. We know very advanced things, but we ignore very simple, which we should know.
I find that if people are getting less educated, how is technology advancing?
because we do not have to find out what other people have found out. in just 2 clicks you can find how atomic reaction works these days. befor 1900's no1 knowed this.
it's not like the romans or egyptians were less smart then us for example. its just that they did not had the technical experience yet as we have had till now.
