There have been a number of historic events that had large measurable effects on human intelligience.
Invention of libraries
Invention of public schools
Building of large universities
Invention of leaded anti knocking compounds in fuel
Policies which reduce or limit access to said public education
Policies which cause intellectuals to flee to other countries
Even if the average persons intellect is in decline, things are getting more complex. Society continues to advance in the long term, equity improves, crime and disease rates go down.
We’re seeing bumps in the trends, not reversals.
Yes, just now everyone has multiple platforms to show everyone just how fucking moronic they are. Before the internet you’d have to be in close proximity to someone to be able to tell they were brain dead now we can just see the dumb shit these fools post from anywhere.
We used to be worse
Technology has allowed stupid people to rapidly spread their stupidity all over the world like never before.
I’m reminded of this diagram:
Right now I think we are in the box on the left.
I’d say we’ve moved to the top box.
I hope you’re right. But I have a bad feeling we’re only getting started as to how bad things are going to get.
Depends on how quickly we can start communicating and learning and adapting again.
Probably. But now the dumbest among us can be visible to everyone and spread their disease.
No in The 50s everyone was smarter and everything perfect. /s
There’s been a significant, internationally tested drop in functional literacy skills in the last decade or so.