Why can’t we think? Let’s face it… people are dumb. Not all people, but most people. People just don’t know basic facts or common sense. Why are people so stupid? Researchers have documented that the average human I.Q has been dropping at a steady pace since around 1980. It has been projected to be at approximately 85.9 (pretty low, given that this is an average) by the year 2050. There are several hypotheses as to why this is happening.
The first suggestion has to do with the cold war. During that time, the Soviet Union forced schools to teach much more advanced subjects to their students in an attempt to “outsmart” the west. The west did the same, trying to keep up with the Soviet Union. This brought human I.Qs up higher than they had been for some time. After the fall of the Soviet Union, these measures were done away with. Since then, the average I.Q has been declining.
However, while this explains how it may have started, it doesn’t explain why I.Qs are still declining. One explanation that scientists are debating over is that we have reached our peak intelligence. This ties back in with the cold war; the theory is that we are “leveling out.” In other words, after World War Two and the Cold War, we had undergone some major technological developments as a race. We now had jet engines, space flight, new music (including disco, metal, etc.), computers, and more. With that comes knowledge and intelligence. However, while we have had some big developments recently, we haven’t been changing as significantly and quickly as back in the ‘40s and through the early ‘90s. This means less knowledge gained; we are now going backward.
Now that that’s established, what can we do about this? Is there any hope? Yes. The main way would be for people to learn more. Go to the Kahn Academy. Take an art class. Learn an instrument, or a foreign language. If something interests you, learn as much as you can stand about it! If everyone could do this, we could boost our I.Q to new heights! If not, we’ll just keep going backward, and who wants that?
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