Are modern day people more intelligent?

Question

For example let's take...well...me!I have more knowledge in maths and computers than an indian but I don't have the skills neccesary to even start a camp fire yet along catch a bufalo.Why do people think that we get smarter every decade?

Answer 1

We've gotten better with nutrition, which I suppose can affect performances on mental tasks in some ways. But in general I don't think the average human is more intelligent these days. It's easier and easier to record and access information, but IQ-wise we're still about the same. Having more knowledge about different subjects doesn't necessarily make you smarter. That's why IQ tests largely rely on pattern recognition of more universal things like numbers and shapes, and not trivia.

I think one of the greatest skills that separates humans from other animals is our abiltiy to not have to re-learn and do everything from the ground up. This is largely due to the fact we're social animals and also have invented writing. I don't have to hunt my own food or make my own clothing; I can get these things at a store. Likewise, I don't have to repeat Galileo's experiments to learn about gravity; I can check out a few physics books from the library. Technology also gives us more leisure time (a thing unheard of to medieval peasants), which we can spend learning new things. This gathering of knowledge gives the illusion that we're smarter than we were last decade. I may know more about physics than Galileo ever did, but that's mostly because I had a bigger bedrock to learn on, and not because I'm "smarter".

Answer 2

I often wonder who will/can survive if there was a world epidemic for example, the stores were closed for a month. The people who can hunt, fish and trap? I think it goes by your hobbies on what you like doing. That is why I am stocking up on food because there is a world epidemic called Pandemic alert going on.

There are some very smart aboriginal people too so you can't label aboriginals only knowing how to survive in the bush. Some
aborginals have never set foot in the reserve to make a fire neither.

What would you do if the power shut off also like the Quebec ice storm.

It is technology - we adapt into a system or how things are done. It is the environment we grow up in. We are like habitat adapting to an environment we grow up in.

Look at the past inventions, people like Einstein-I wonder who was smarter the past or present.

My daugther is aboriginal and she is smart in Math and computers and can start a fire outdoors.

I am told my grand daugther is a genius.

Answer 3

People of modern day have lost the common sense that it takes for survival, Which is actually pretty sad, yet we have gained a vast amount of technology in much more complex subjects. Yours is a very good question......... or I should say an enlightening revelation that we all may have over looked. Have you ever seen the show survival man on discovery channel? He is very informative on that subject.

Answer 4

Actually we are smarter. You don't know how to make a fire because you don't NEED to start a fire to stay warm or to cook your food. You don't NEED to be able to catch a buffalo in order to eat. We can stay well fed without doing a lot of the work. Seems to me that that is smarter!

Answer 5

it all depends on how you interpret intelligence, could the average person today survive with out all the amenities we have and could say someone from 300 years ago do your job? it`s all how intelligence is iterpreteted. over all i would say we are smarter with technology but lacking in survival skills

Answer 6

2 words: F_ck No. I spend a good number of time on politics-based web content, boards, having political conversations, discovering history, in reality being as in contact as humanly achieveable and that i can inform you that the Liberal attitude is poisoning united statesa. and has been for extra or less 50 years. it is slowly destroying the artwork ethic and delight that folk used to have that's what made this united states great. little ones are growing to be up with the thought they don't could do something, that somebody else will shelter it. They stay of their mothers and dads' residing house until they're 27 and are on disability (disability!) for "drug problems." they're additionally overmedicated, under-knowledgeable and often have not have been given any appreciate for all people or something. it is Liberalism that lowers the grading curve in colleges so as that youngsters don't experience undesirable approximately themselves relatively than making them attempt extra solid to be triumphant. it is Liberalism that has created this "every physique wins" attitude and way of residing that leaves little ones thoroughly unprepared for the genuine international. it is Liberalism that has created the attitude of ingratitude and self-victimization in this united states the place no one is to blame for something that occurs of their very own lives and are thoroughly ungrateful and/or take with no attention for each thing given to them. it is Liberals who seek for to unbalance the scales on an identical time as screaming "Equality!" it is Liberals who enslave minorities for votes. seem on the poorest cities in this united states and tell me politically-speaking, who they're controlled by way of.

Answer 7

In some categories we are-I think mainly because of the Internet and the information hwy. But some people who seem really dumb are just ignorant to facts...I.E -Fundamentalists

Answer 8

I'm a survival instructor, so hey, I can do both that AND the computer....
Who's smarter now?

Answer 9

not for neccesary it's just a matter of time that we begin form where they finished
.. it's a circle

Answer 10

No ..

Modern people only have more chances to increase their knowledge and that doesnt mean they are more intelligent ...