We're not getting any smarter....
Contrary to what many people might think, we will not become smarter in the future. Based on dr. Flynn's opinion from Otago University in New Zeeland, mankind evolved almost as much as possible up to this point, therefore we have reached our potential and a future development is considered to be imposible. He considers that the only posible development of other brain parts are for emotion and linguistic skills. Flynn based his findings on standard IQ tests for which the results have stopped increasing. The interpretation of this fact is not that people are getting more stupid but that the maximum limit of development has been reached. Results of IQ tests were improving in the last century due to adaptation to social environment, results were increased. Now in some parts of the world they are still increasing, e.g. in USA, but this is not necessarily relevant for the outcome of the study.
The researcher's advice for mankind is to help the evolution of linguistic and emotional parts of our brain by reading literature books. This may sound like a torture for many of us but still, maybe we can try :). What do you think?
The researcher's advice for mankind is to help the evolution of linguistic and emotional parts of our brain by reading literature books. This may sound like a torture for many of us but still, maybe we can try :). What do you think?
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Tags: Evenimentul zilei
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posted by Cristina Banu at
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
8 Comments:
Maybe this guy has reached his maximum development limit...he mentions something about America...it's like considering the frogs saying "quack" is a major step in evolution.
And a message for Dr. Flynn ...Let your brain out of the jar...maybe it will get some more air and...who knows...maybe it will evolve from eating McDonald's all day to...KFC :)
By
Anonymous, at 4:24 PM
Haha ok very good comment. Thanks anonymous (Daniel actually). Indeed the US statistics seemed the funnies part the article for me too. It would be sad if we reached our maximum limit so let's hope this is not the case.
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Cristina Banu, at 4:40 PM
Well, the fact that he admited to other countries reaching what Americans are still trying to achieve: the upper limit, hardly makes him a person that does not think out of the box! I guess his findings are quite interesting to look at. Maybe it's a sign humanity tries to develop the wrong part of their mind. Compare that with the fact people with highly developped emotional intelligence do better than those with a high IQ...Probably mixing the two is the right answer?
By
Alina, at 10:01 AM
Of course everybody tries to mix them, depending of the capabilities :) The main idea is to concentrate on developing the EQ and to increase one's level of culture.
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Cristina Banu, at 8:11 PM
I think people may not get smarter, but they get too much experience in younger ages.
By
Anonymous, at 2:02 PM
Phew, I'm on a posting marathon today. Seriously I scrolled down the page and figured I wouldnt comment on anything else, but VOILA!!
Smarter huh? I believe that we will continue to become smarter. In fact there is some proof that even today some people are smarter than others. Of course this depends on your definition of smart. Does it mean you can process a great deal of information quickly? In that sense we are inteligent (not smart) and for all intent and purposes we may not become any more inteligent. However being smart I believe has to do with abstract thinking and imagination. Being able to understand abstract ideas/problems and come up with creative solutions. Smart to me means connecting two seemingly unrelated things into a single patern or idea.
Like for example, a person who thinks we cant get smarter probably wants to make money seeling a book/idea. And about IQ tests. I wonder how well an idiot-savant (autistic person) would score on one. Anyway, the IQ test are a western phsych equivalent of a double edged sword. Its good for some, not for others. And in the end its only so long, that is the test is rather limited.
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Fyurien, at 2:15 AM
Fyurien, hello again and thanks for leaving another insightful comment. I agree that our mind is becoming more creative, inventful because we have access to unlimited information, new discoveries everyday and so on. Therefore our brain is getting more insightful. In this post I only described an article for the purpose of finding out what other people thought related to the subject :)
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Cristina Banu, at 11:34 AM
Hi =D
I tend to get a bit annoyed by anyone that says we cant do something better. There was a story a long time ago about the head of the pattent office in America. He declared that we had invented everything we could, so there was no reason to keep giving out pattents for new stuff. As funny as that may seem, I think a lot of people get to thinking this way. You konw, this is as much as I've done so its as much as I can do. I believe that our potential doesnt lie in numbers on a spreadsheet derived from a funny little test. Western psych spends a great deal of time telling us what we cant do and why we cant do it. Their reasoning usually lies on backwards thinking. Such that, the most we've ever been able to run is 5 miles, thus we certainly cannot run 6. Its a sort of self supporting argument.
I can honestly say and without being too obvious, I am not keen on psychologists. It seems that they constaly find reasons why you cant do something and thus why you need their help to get around it. =)
I might have missed the point of the post while getting caught up in the context. =D
By
Fyurien, at 7:52 PM
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