A blog reader kindly provided this depressing set of links to news stories from over the last few years…
Study suggests humans are slowly but surely losing intellectual and emotional abilities November 12, 2012 in Genetics http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-humans-slowly-surely-intellectual-emotional.html#ajTabsPeople Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests The Huffington Post | By Macrina Cooper-White Posted: 05/22/2013 7:58 am EDT Updated: 05/22/2013 10:59 pm EDT http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html
Leading Geneticist: Human Intelligence is Slowly Declining by Mike Barrett February 17th, 2013 | Updated 02/17/2013 at 12:43 pm http://naturalsociety.com/leading-geneticist-human-intelligence-slowly-declining/
Dawn of the dumb – scientists say IQs are beginning to fall in the UK Thursday 21 Aug 2014 3:37 pm http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/21/dawn-of-the-dumb-scientists-say-iqs-are-beginning-to-fall-in-the-uk-4841114/ http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329830.400-brain-drain-are-we-evolving-stupidity.html
Are we becoming more STUPID? IQ scores are decreasing - and some experts argue it's because humans have reached their intellectual peak By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline Published: 08:50 EST, 21 August 2014 | Updated: 09:42 EST, 21 August 2014 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2730791/Are-STUPID-Britons-people-IQ-decline.html
Are humans becoming less intelligent? It could very well be By Tia Ghose updated 11/12/2012 2:03:25 PM ET http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49792179/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Yup. We’re boned.
Now, I don’t know what the actual hard facts are in this. Can it be objectively proven that the west is getting stupider? And is that stupid that comes from genetics, meaning the species is in trouble, or from lack of intellectual exercise, meaning it could in principle be reversed for people who are actually really here (as opposed to a eugenics/selective breeding/genetic engineering program which would only benefit future generations)?
Do I have hard facts to prove that we’re dumber? Not as such, but I do know this: in the 1950’s, belief in nonsense like astrology and the “flat Earth” and creationism were seemingly on the way out the door, headed for the dustbin of history. And sixty years later… here we are. We’ve been putting humans into freakin’ orbit for most of a human lifespan; we’ve sent probes to every planet and out of the solar system; we’ve found evidence of life in rocks more than three and a half billion years old, and yet, belief in nonsense is on the rise. Fifty years ago, if you told people “we have vaccines for almost everything,” people would’ve lined up around the block to get their kids in on that action. Today? Protests. In the 50’s, engineering students studied engineering. Critical Race Theory teachers had the good sense to not exist. Geography teachers taught geography. Today? Guh.
We’ve made the world mankind has always wanted, and it seems like it’s biting us in the ass. The western world is safe and often challenge-free; you can get through a good long life, up to and including breeding a whole bunch more just like you, with hardly a life-threatening challenge that will cause you to spool up your thinkin’ abilities.