Are We Just Gettin' Stoopider?

[Josephus]

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/09/06/have_we_stopped_getting_smarter.html

Have humans stopped getting smarter? This is the provocative question posed on a recent cover of New Scientist magazine. The article, written by Canadian science writer Bob Holmes, looks at evidence that suggests that our decades-long increase in intelligence may be stalling and even reversing.
For many years, human intelligence as measured by IQ tests has been increasing around the world. This phenomenon was dubbed the "Flynn effect," after James Flynn of New Zealand who found that over the last 60 years, IQ scores have consistently increased in a diverse set of countries, including Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, the United States and Canada. While there have been many theories floated to explain this trend, the most commonly accepted view is that improved health and better education have made people much smarter.
But it seems that upward trend may be levelling off, or even reversing. In Denmark, every 18-year-old male is liable for military service and therefore gets tested for intelligence. So since the 1950s, tens of thousands of Danish men have been taking the same IQ test each year. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Flynn effect was in full force with scores increasing by three points per decade. However, scores reached a peak in 1998, and have since declined by 1.5 points. Similar patterns have emerged in Australia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.
What could explain our apparent stagnation? Whereas poor health and environments once held us back from reaching our intellectual potential, developed countries have addressed many of these issues. Improvements in public sanitation, better nutrition and more stimulating environments largely accounted for the steady gains in intelligence. So it seems we may have now reached that potential, and thus our scores are levelling off.
But none of this explains why our IQ scores would start to decrease. One disturbing possibility is a genetic decline in our intellectual capability. Jan te Nijenhuis of the University of Amsterdam points to the inverse relationship between IQ and fertility. He cites evidence that suggests that on average, women of higher intelligence tend to have fewer children than women of lower intelligence, and thus our average intellectual potential may be decreasing over time.
This is certainly an unpalatable explanation, and it would be wise to remember how previous concerns around people's intelligence were often used to justify racist and sometimes barbaric practices. For example, the April 22, 1919, issue of the Toronto Daily Star, in an article titled "Problem of Foreigners," reported from an education conference about how it was best to allow Italian children in Ontario schools to "use the simplest material with which to express themselves . . . as the children's ideas are crude."
A more horrifying example comes from Alberta, which in 1928 passed sexual sterilization laws and created its own eugenics board, which was given the power to sterilize individuals who were "mentally defective" in order to prevent "the risk of multiplication of the evil by transmission of the disability to progeny." During its 44 years of existence, it approved the sterilization of 4,725 people, of which 2,822 sterilizations were actually carried out.
Concerns like these aside, even if the stagnation in IQ scores is real, it is not cause for panic. IQ is only one measure, and people such as Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner have argued that there are indeed multiple kinds of intelligence. And in any case, as outlined in the book How Children Succeed by Canadian Paul Tough, character traits such as perseverance, discipline and self-control are often much better predictors of success in life than just raw intelligence.
But apart even from these caveats, we would be wise to recognize that although conditions have improved immensely in the developed world, too many in our own country are still not given the chance to live up to their own full intellectual potential. Whether it is our aboriginal children, certain visible minority groups or kids from low-income families, there is still a lot of brain power in our country that is currently left untapped. Thus we would be better off focusing on removing the obstacles facing these groups than worrying about the potential dumbing down of society.

[mongers]

Speaking from personal experience, Yes, though I can't vouch for others. 

[Legbiter]

It's all been downhill since the Gravettian period.

[Ideologue]

Does it really matter if robots are going to be doing their jobs by the time they've grown up?

[The Brain]

Seems unlikely that any poster here would get stupider.

[Eddie Teach]

Not with the Brain around to keep us on our toes.

[Razgovory]

Seems unlikely that any poster here would get stupider.

Finally, I'm ahead of the curve on something!

[frunk]

A comedy and a chilling vision of our future.

[garbon]

A comedy and a chilling vision of our future.

Better description would be shitty, waste of time.

[Ideologue]

Garbon sucks.  It is known.

[garbon]

Garbon sucks.  It is known.

It ain't known by you, buddy. As if.

[Josephus]

Garbon sucks.  It is known.

And now we know he's getting stupider too.

[garbon]

So what's the upside on that crappy movie? What's the cool buzz?

[Siege]

I'm getting stupider, I think.
But then, I wasn't very smart to begin with, as my life choices prove.

I am not too worry as long as I know I am stupid and I need to correct it to be successful in the winter of my life.
It is really bad for people that don't know they are stupid, getting stupier, and do nothing about it.

For example, I can't wait to hook up my brain to a nano-wifi device to surf the web with my brain, and thus have instant knowledge when and where I need it.
An external bio hard drive as a memory enhancer would also be cool.
So, I still got hopes of getting better, even though the pill from Limitless might not be possible.

[Josephus]

I am not too worry as long as I know I am stupid