Study Claims Human Intelligence Peaked Two To Six Millennia Ago page

[Grok]

"Professor Gerald "Jerry" Crabtree of Stanford's Crabtree Laboratory published a paper (PDF) that has appeared in twoparts in Trends in Genetics. The paper opens with a very controversial suggestion: 'I would be willing to wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions.' From there, Crabtree speculates we're on the decline of human intelligence and we have been for at least a couple millennia. His argument suggests agriculture and, following from that, cities, have allowed us to break free of some environmental forces on competitive genetic mutations — a la Mike Judge's theory. However, the conclusion of the paper urges humans to keep calm and carry on, as any attempt to fix this genetic trend would almost certainly be futile and disturbing."

Study Claims Human Intelligence Peaked Two To Six Millennia Ago - Slashdot

[JoanieL]

Yeah, when they stopped letting kids get "left back" because it might hurt their boo boo egos, it all went to shit.

[Lewis]

[I]'I would be willing to wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions.'

I guess it's possible, but hardly established just by saying so. This would be during what's generally believed to be the "Dark Ages" after the collapse of Mycenaean civilization:

http://www.ambrosedigital.com/compon...id=59&vmcchk=1

I'd have thought Athens about half a millennium later would be rather more interesting. I don't know about "he or she" though -- the Ancient Greek practice of keeping women relatively speaking veiled and shut up ("respectable" ones at any rate) might have handicapped their intellectual "aliveness" somewhat ... though maybe not: I guess the women in Lysistrata give as good as they get.

CLEONICE
And why do you summon us, dear Lysistrata? What is it all about?

LYSISTRATA
About a big thing.

CLEONICE (wearily)
And is it thick too?

LYSISTRATA
Yes, very thick.

CLEONICE
And we are not all on the spot! Imagine!

Drama: Lysistrata

[jojohaligo]

Human Intelligence Peaked Two To Six Millennia Ago - and you can tell by some of the threads around here lately.

[tfarny]

Just skimmed the paper. That's not a "study." That's what we call a "think piece" in my field, basically it's interesting speculation by someone with some knowledge on the subject. No research was performed.
The difference is huge, because nobody is ever going to know the answer to the "peak" of human intelligence. Brain cavity size, gene activation, none of the things you could possibly use as measurements really say much about actual intelligence.

[Paleobird]

Human Intelligence Peaked Two To Six Millennia Ago - and you can tell by some of the threads around here lately.

Heheheheheh...........................

[Swarley]

Yeah, when they stopped letting kids get "left back" because it might hurt their boo boo egos, it all went to shit.

Truth. When my wife was a full time teacher they weren't allowed to give kids an "F" anymore. Complete and utter bullshit. If the kid had every opportunity to perform well, but failed because they didn't pay attention in class or do the homework, guess what? they failed.

[Grok]

Human Intelligence Peaked Two To Six Millennia Ago - and you can tell by some of the threads around here lately.

No, that's caused by The Department of Education.

[Bosnic]

Yeah, when they stopped letting kids get "left back" because it might hurt their boo boo egos, it all went to shit.

The only way that is even relevant is if those children go on to have more offspring than they would have.

I'm not sure that's the case...

[JoanieL]

I don't know the stats on the number of offspring. However, I have to believe that when "everybody passes," it knocks the wind out of little developing, naturally competitive, high achieving kids. What's the point of working your ass off if everyone gets the same reward?

Imagine a world where everyone who took the CPA exam, Bar exam, Medical boards, etc., got to work in those professions regardless of ability, just because they tried "real hard," but just didn't get the grades. As it is, in my lifetime, they've dumbed down the SATs so much that if I want to be one of those senior citizen grad students, they automatically add 200 points to my scores because of those changes.

I don't know current numbers, but when I lived in CA, I learned that for every dollar spent on "exceptional" children in education, 98cents was spent on below average learning abled and 2cents was spent on above average. I'm not heartless, and I believe in public education, but damn, that's a huge disparity.

Large segments of our culture glorify the good old boy mentality while sneering at "those over-educated snobs."

I don't know when intelligence peaked. But I think the respect for intelligence went in the toilet about 25 years ago.