Are Humans Becoming Less Intelligent?

[Times Roman]

http://news.yahoo.com/humans-becomin...173400651.html

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

The study, published today (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.

The theory isn't without critics, with one scientist contacted by LiveScience suggesting that rather than losing our smarts, humans have just diversified them with various types of intelligence today.

Life or death situations

Early humans lived or died by their spatial abilities, such as quickly making a shelter or spearing a saber-toothed tiger. Nowadays, though almost everyone has the spatial ability to do ostensibly simple tasks like washing dishes or mowing the lawn, such tasks actually require a lot of brainpower, the researchers note.

And we can thank our ancestors and the highly tuned mechanism of natural selection for such abilities. Meanwhile, the ability to play chess or compose poetry likely evolved as collateral effects.

But after the spread of agriculture, when our ancestors began to live in dense farming communities, the intense need to keep those genes in peak condition gradually waned.

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.

Intelligence genes

Anywhere between 2,000 and 5,000 genes determine human intelligence, and these genes are particularly susceptible to harmful changes, or mutations, the researchers write. Based on knowledge of the rate of mutations, the team concludes that the average person harbors two intelligence-stunting genetic changes that evolved over the last 3,000 years.

The hypothesis is counterintuitive at first. After all, across the world the average IQ has increased dramatically over the last 100 years, a phenomenon known as the Flynn Effect. But most of that jump probably resulted from better prenatal care, better nutrition and reduced exposure to brain-stunting chemicals such as lead, Crabtree argues.

But just because humans have more mutations in their intelligence genes doesn't mean we are becoming less brainy as a species, said psychologist Thomas Hills of the University of Warwick, who was not involved in the study. Instead, removing the pressure for everyone to be a superb hunter or gatherer may have allowed us to evolve a more diverse population with different types of smarts, he said.

"You don't get Stephen Hawking 200,000 years ago. He just doesn't exist," Hills told LiveScience. "But now we have people of his intellectual capacity doing things and making insights that we would never have achieved in our environment of evolutionary adaptation."

[JD250]

Interesting

[Atomini]

I wholeheartedly agree with this article. I've been telling people these things for years.

I believe that in many ways we are hampering our evolutionary path for the worse with the environments we have constructed for ourselves. Of course, we have done many things that have made previously difficult tasks in our history far more easy to do today (we have cars and different things that make our lives more convenient). But I do believe that we have now developed a system whereby natural selection is going to work against us. In 40 thousand years, will we still have the ability to walk due to how much less we are on our feet? And as time progresses, the conveniences of a modern information age will only increase, which seems like a good thing on the surface, yes? But think about the long term ramifications of what we have done with ourselves.

I ask myself these questions frequently. Of course, I won't be alive to see these changes down the road and the ramifications therein. But man... I wonder if one day in 50 thousand years or more, will the scientists of that time period have to face a crisis where they realize what we have done to ourselves, and think of methods whereby our genes will need to be manipulated to prevent these negative evolutionary changes? Of course, in 50 thousand years (should science and technology continue to progress and not regress), we should have the ability to guide our own evolutionary path, and such a task should be achievable. But think about it...

[Honkey_Kong]

Atomini, we're on the verge of being able to gene dope (some think we're already there). I don't think it'll be 50k years before we're at that point. I'm willing to bet within 100 years, doctors will start manipulating genes to make a more intelligent human.

[Atomini]

Oh i'm not saying it will be 50k years before we're at that point. I was just saying, that in 50k years we should have the ability to gene dope well underway and in fact have it as a common daily occurance/treatment by then. My point was that all of the conditions we construct ourselves to be in - these cities we've built, things like cars, ease of different ways of life vs how we did things thousands of years ago, etc. - will likely have negative ramifications on our evolutionary path whereby the only solution to counter that is to control our own genetic evolutionary destiny rather than allow natural selection to do it. Because if natural selection has its way, we may have a less than desireable outcome as a result of these different things we are doing to ourselves. Thus, we could have to engage in 'controlled selection', if you will, rather than 'natural selection'. I believe this is an inevitable path we are moving towards as a species.

Oh what I wouldn't give to be able to see the result of ourselves in 50k years from now...

[RaginCajun]

The movie idiocracy (sp) basically plays on this.

[Brick]

The movie idiocracy (sp) basically plays on this.

That movie was a waste of time

[warmouth]

The answer: No, only you are TR Good read or sure. Thanks for posting it.

[lstbred]

I think there is a gap opening also, theres already a gap and I think that soon it will be hugely appearant. A lot of intellect is environmental and learned response, you just dont wake up and be a astrophysist, a CPA, or ditch digger, those ppl are using thier mind and gaining from it, they are expanding on something that has been going on for thousands of years, growth, maybe not much in some cases but some just the same. Schooling does not always denote intellegence. If you took a person that was handed everything to them, say a welfare recipient (not being political just saying) that does nothing, barely uses any thought about anything, what is going to happen to the 3rd or 4th generation of that person? intellegence will fade. There are a few that will succeed and break that but not many. As a whole those types will get larger and cause the gap to widen.

[Shol'va]

Well TR I don't know if it is humans in general that are dumbing down or just Americans. After watching 60 minutes last sunday and finding that there are anywhere from 1 to 3 million jobs going unfilled in the states. Why? Because America no longer produces an education for children to be smart enough for running todays machines. IE they know nothing of math, science, and english. Therefore the companies can't hire the kids because they are so stupid! The companies would have to invest at least 2 years of intense training to even get the kids ready to take on the jobs, basically reeducating them, and they are reluctant to invest the money and time without a commitment from the kids, who don't want to learn. After all everything they get now is free so why work? Our country is fvcked up. And then look at our military scandal now going strong. America is the titanic and we struck an iceberg......

[Times Roman]

The answer: No, only you are TR Good read or sure. Thanks for posting it.

(yeah, but don't say it so loud next time....
....others might hear and catch on!)

[Times Roman]

Well TR I don't know if it is humans in general that are dumbing down or just Americans. After watching 60 minutes last sunday and finding that there are anywhere from 1 to 3 million jobs going unfilled in the states. Why? Because America no longer produces an education for children to be smart enough for running todays machines. IE they know nothing of math, science, and english. Therefore the companies can't hire the kids because they are so stupid! The companies would have to invest at least 2 years of intense training to even get the kids ready to take on the jobs, basically reeducating them, and they are reluctant to invest the money and time without a commitment from the kids, who don't want to learn. After all everything they get now is free so why work? Our country is fvcked up. And then look at our military scandal now going strong. America is the titanic and we struck an iceberg......

I'm not so sure. I've heard these stats before and I'm highly skeptical. Just because a machine is idle doesn't mean there is sufficient demand to warrant hiring someone to run the machine. Demand for american made products is on the decline, so there will always be excess capacity. I agree that our kids are losing the competitive advantage to kids from other countries, such as India that are motivated to learn and get a free education. And I also agree that many of our kids are lazy fukcs who would rather sponge off mom and dad than have to go out and do for themselves. I also agree that drugs are probably more prevelent in our country than in many other countries, and who would want to hire a druggie to run an expensive/dangerous piece of equipment. I also agree that we have a huge welfare society, and our kids would rather fvck and make babies and let uncle sam give them a $800 check each month, food stamps, and a low rent apartment, than to buckle down and go get a job. So..... what were we talking about again?

[Times Roman]

I think there is a gap opening also, theres already a gap and I think that soon it will be hugely appearant. A lot of intellect is environmental and learned response, you just dont wake up and be a astrophysist, a CPA, or ditch digger, those ppl are using thier mind and gaining from it, they are expanding on something that has been going on for thousands of years, growth, maybe not much in some cases but some just the same. Schooling does not always denote intellegence. If you took a person that was handed everything to them, say a welfare recipient (not being political just saying) that does nothing, barely uses any thought about anything, what is going to happen to the 3rd or 4th generation of that person? intellegence will fade. There are a few that will succeed and break that but not many. As a whole those types will get larger and cause the gap to widen.

I think the argument is that those that do stupid things are not punished - you don't go charging a saber tooth tiger with a crappy short spear that breaks easy. Back then, punishment was death (tiger would eat you), and your dumbass genes were not passed on to future generations. that's the one side of the argument.

And the other side of the argument is......?

[RaginCajun]

That movie was a waste of time

Exactly my point!