Interesting Link From Marvel's Link

[oldtimer]

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190709-has-humanity-reached-peak-intelligence

[CECAA850]

1 hour ago, oldtimer said:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190709-has-humanity-reached-peak-intelligence

The Darwin principal has raised the average intelligence.

[Chris A]

As is commonplace, there seems to be a lack of imagination in terms of just what is being measured in "IQ tests" (such, as the SAT and ACT, among others).  But these measure [EDIT] three intelligence scales out of at least 8 scales that Gardner has proposed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

 

Then again, perhaps it wasn't intelligence that was being bred into humans, but rather "tameness": 

 

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160912-a-soviet-scientist-created-the-only-tame-foxes-in-the-world

 

Read especially the last half of the second linked article.  I find it an interesting read, and one that tends to be very polarizing when these same principles are applied to Homo Sapiens. 

 

What they didn't mention in the fox breeding case is that they took the more aggressive foxes that were deselected from the official breeding program and interbred those--producing even more vicious foxes than their wild counterparts.  Their "intelligences" were also different than the starting (wild-domesticated) population of foxes...and not necessarily less intelligent, but rather a different mix of intelligences.

 

All of this falls squarely in the realm of "eugenics", which has gotten a fair amount of the intelligentsia in trouble over the past 150 years--since Origin of Species was written/published (and was the basis of one side's propaganda of a pretty terrible war: WWII).  My observation is that we humans as a species tend to get this subject wrong in order to advance individual theories--and that's the usual hallmark of these sort of discussions. 

 

I think that Charles Darwin was right--what will happen will happen: any species will tend to self-adapt to their changing environments to be more survivable--not dumber.

 

Chris

[oldtimer]

20 minutes ago, Chris A said:

I think that Charles Darwin was right--what will happen will happen: any species will tend to self-adapt to their changing environments to be more survivable--not dumber.

When the environment changes too quickly, species can also go extinct, as evidence of several mass extinctions instructs.

[Chris A]

There is  a video on Amazon Prime entitled "E.O. Wilson: Of Ants and Men" (a PBS video) that is relevant to this discussion (on human development and what we are really measuring- in terms of "intelligences"), especially the subjects of eusociality and group selection (as opposed to "selfish" kin selection)

 

Ed Wilson is also the type of guy that you can't dislike.

 

Chris

[JJkizak]

Intelligent people don't pee, poo-poo, drool, sweat, eat animals, eat vegetables, stink, have bad breath, need teeth, speak orally, fart, drink, perform physical multiplications, need hair,

need to smell, and that leaves me out of the picture.

JJK

[BigStewMan]

On 7/12/2019 at 8:58 AM, Chris A said:

I think that Charles Darwin was right--what will happen will happen: any species will tend to self-adapt to their changing environments to be more survivable--not dumber.

If Darwin was in California yesterday, he wouldn’t have made that statement.  I heard at some political function, a person was using “jazz hands” instead of applauding in order not to be offensive to those sensitive to loud noises ... like clapping. If we’re getting stronger as a species ... i’m not seeing it.