Genetics?

Maybe they are just more observant from the beginning?

Maybe they ask more questions?

Yep, that's entirely possible. Like other children born with exceptional musical or athletic abilities.

the advancements in technology is the proof that the evolution of intellectualism has not stalled....the proof that intellectualism can be stalled is the practice of promoting beliefs and/or religions as truth because both demands that the believers not think beyond the beliefs

we are hardly "devolving" as a couple have suggested here. but i don't consider it to be a matter of comparing intelligence when thinking of the "brainiacs" of today and whenever. it's a matter of comparing the number critical and theoretical thinkers. we cannot know how many brilliant minds were around back when nor do we know the number now. all we can count is who is published or otherwise renown. i'm confident that there are as many of these "smart" folks now as have ever been as a percentage of the population.

I imagine there are some brilliant Aborigines and Kalahari Bushmen and Amazonian Indians and such who never had access to an education system

so we never heard of wm

I think necessity is the mother of creativity and invention. WE revere most in this thread for some 'discovery' or 'invention' which is not a bad thing, but is only one measure of intelligence.

more technology has , in my opinion, greatly reduced our NEED to be creative, or inventive, or even hard working in many cases. I think we still have brilliant people but we dont have as many people who feel the need or desire to be brilliant.

yep. we keep hearing of people coming up with brilliant ideas out of nowhere with little or no education. bill gates?

quite the contrary. our technology has given us many tools to enhance our thinking. the hubble telescope is as example. because we can look deeper into space we've discovered phenomena that we would have never given a thought to before. now we are pondering such ideas as dark matter. quantum mechanics would not have been possible without the technology that gave us access to the world of very small particles. technology saves time too. it used to take far longer to engineer something when all we had for calculations was the slide rule. now cad cam programs can litterally draw an idea on an engineer's computer screen. the boeing 777 is the perfect example. the first "paperless" airplane employed not a single draftsman. time was not wasted while he sharpened his pencils or took a lunch break so engineers were able to finnish the design quickly and get on with pondering the 787.

I see where you are going and I agree. We still have those who are inclined to know more,, who go into engineering or science for that purpose and I bet they are every bit as brilliant as engineers and scientists of the past. The average person, though, has become lazier the more technology has developed. The more computers and calculators we have to think for us,, the less likely we are to feel a need to develop those skills on our own. The more cars we have, the less likely we are to want to walk any lengthy distance, the more food is manufactured, the less of a need we have to be hunters or fishers. I think , for the average person, technology has contributed quite a bit to a lazier culture, lazier in action and in thought. I dont know if its a good thing to think that all an enemy would have to do to cause havoc in our lives is knock out our electricity or our technology,, at least in the past men fought and worked HARD to survive and to conquer their enemies. Now I think we may have gotten to a place where things have become TOO easy and been followed by people taking things TOO much for granted.

I would say that right now is the most generally educated population this planet has ever had

99% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive right now

in Newton's time education was only for the rich and nobles. the majority of regular people couldn't even read

in Einstein's time most people only had elementary education. Most left school to work on the farms or factories

Msharmony...so while debating on the internet..you rather be creative and run or fly across the continents to give your post in a letter by hand instead of just using your computer to post

by lazy i assume you mean lazy thinking. with that in mind, how do you explain that fewer and fewer people percentage wise, are engaged daily in jobs that require physical activity without much thinking, farming, factories, heavy earth moving, etc., and more and more must rely mainly on their brains to bring home a paycheck? whether it be engineers, software designers, users of software such as accountants, stock brokers, even doctors that make use of their brains more and more than was required in the past i just cannot imagine that we are becoming lazy minded. i think your impression, as with many americans especially, comes from your perspective from the outside looking in. perhaps you are not actively engaged in these technological persuits, i wouldn't know, but i can see why people who are not cannot appreciate that it was the minds of humans that made such technology that makes life easier possible. and as i indicated earlier, when everyday tasks become simple our minds are freed to explore. especially in the capitalist world we live in today. new ideas mean moola. i'm reminded of a friend of mine who immigrated to america from iran a couple decades ago. he came here with nothing and is quite wealthy today. he cannot imagine why in a country with the education system that america has, especially when compared to his home country, that every american is not a millionair. he used no physical skills to gain his wealth, only his wit and of course, modern technology.

I think, as a whole, we are wiser. I am glad I am living in this modern age where women are not treated like beasts of burden and property as much as they used to. The tendency is still there, but people are waking up. They don't burn witches anymore at least.

That of course only happens as people in general drift away from the fire and brimstone type religions, and governments realize that prayer in school is a dangerous thing to allow because it sponsors and pushes a specific belief.

I am grateful for modern conveniences, and that I don't have to carry a bag of laundry down to the creek and pound it on a rock.

Wisdom, I believe, is contagious. A species evolves together, sharing mind sets and ideas in many different ways. It is the collective consciousness. In our modern society it spreads through the Internet, word of mouth, actions, deeds, laws, opinions, business, trade and thought transference.

We are wiser than we used to be. Maybe we are not wiser than some of the advanced civilizations that came before us, but we, as incarnating souls are wiser. As a group, we are wiser.

As a society, we are NOT getting smarter. In fact, the reverse is true, masked only by the illusion created by technology. Greater minds than our own existed long before technology, with the only real difference being the lack of communication, and as a result, a lack of technological progress with no other brilliant minds to continue their efforts.

The times have changed but people haven't changed.Humans still do all the same things we have always done.The same self righteous mistakes we have always made, time after time. There is nothing new under the sun.

No, but I would have rather become accustomed to getting to know the people right next door and communicating with them instead of those across the ocean whom I will most likely never interact with. I would have rather become accustomed to changing the channel by hand then sitting and pushing a button, I would have rather become accustomed to walking or riding a bike to the local store instead of driving. I certainly would rather people have had their conversations at home in privacy instead of behind me at the theater or next to me on the bus or in my company. I would have rather children learn to compute basic math in their head instead of learning to rely on calculators. I would rather people learn how to spell correctly instead of relying on spell check,,etc,,,,

I think people with less technology are actually the stronger culture, forced to use their own God given intellect and strength and the most likely to survive..but thats just my opinion.

As far as jobs, I think the average job does not require a whole lot of intellect,,but that is my opinion again. Most jobs require repetition of something that is shown to them,,not much logic and application though.

What objective criteria can you use to support this assertion?

the bong said so?

I think some perspective is in order. In terms of history, what we know of science today had its beginnings less than 350 years ago, 400 if you want to consider that Copernicus challenged the world with his idea that the earth was not stationary and it was not the center of which all the physical realm revolved.

It was not until 1619 that Kepler completed the third of his 'laws' for planetary motion. In the 1640's Galileo gave us the law of inertia and a useful version of the telescope. It wasn't until 1684 that Newton brought all that earlier work together with explicit mathematical formulas for the universal law of gravity.

From there we had to wait for the industrial revolution and for technology to take us further.

As all that was going on the world was at constant war, colonization and dealing with new forms of governments, slavery, and international trade. In other words we had to grow up.

We had to have some equality, some prosperiety and a sense of community which was brought about through nationalism - a simple concept of propaganda. But it worked.

To appreciate where we are, sometimes you have to look back to where we were.

WWI was trench warfare, tanks only appeared at the end. Planes came into existence for WWII. In 1909 there was only about 400 miles of paved road in the whole United States. The majority of people who died succumbed to diseases like influenza, taburculosis and something as natural as child birth.

How could anyone with this knowledge thing we have not 'EXPLODED' in exponential ways since science began?