http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-8307101.html#I'm inclined to agree with Prof. Crabtree - to a point. I think that we dumb ourselves down because of cultural evolution rather than genetic evolution, at least in the short term. Cultural and technological evolution is infinitely faster than genetic evolution. As humans, we prefer the quicker - and lazier - path.(snip)
Is the human species doomed to intellectual decline? Will our intelligence ebb away in centuries to come leaving our descendants incapable of using the technology their ancestors invented? In short: will Homo be left without his sapiens?
This is the controversial hypothesis of a leading geneticist who believes that the immense capacity of the human brain to learn new tricks is under attack from an array of genetic mutations that have accumulated since people started living in cities a few thousand years ago.
(snip)
Life as a hunter-gatherer was probably more intellectually demanding than widely supposed, he says. “A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his or her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate,” Professor Crabtree says.
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Look at the product of the inner cities. Look at the product of idiot savants coming out of the educational system that produce keypad button pushers who can't spell without a spell checker, or engineers who can't calculate a logarithm without a TI calculator.
Originally Posted by Rockntractor
