POLL: are people becoming dumber?
- Thread starter alphatarget1
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dullard
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- May 21, 2001
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Please ignore my alias for this discussion.
There have always been dumb people. There always will be. Ask any generation of eldery people and they say the younger generation is worse then they were. Think about it. What if that were true? We'd be dumber than our parents, who were dumber than our grandparents, who were dumber than our greatgrandparents, etc. Suddenly you wonder why the supposedly super bright cavemen were living in caves and us idiots have the computer age?
No instead I think it is the common idea that people think more highly of themselves and thus they THINK the other generation is dumber. That is certainly not necessarilly true.
Obviously if you are smart enough to use the internet and find Anandtech, you are probably above average in education. Thus of course when you go to the supermarket or the county fair people look dumb. That doesn't mean we are dumber each generation, but that you probably are above average and seeing the below average people can be depressing.
There have always been dumb people. There always will be. Ask any generation of eldery people and they say the younger generation is worse then they were. Think about it. What if that were true? We'd be dumber than our parents, who were dumber than our grandparents, who were dumber than our greatgrandparents, etc. Suddenly you wonder why the supposedly super bright cavemen were living in caves and us idiots have the computer age?
No instead I think it is the common idea that people think more highly of themselves and thus they THINK the other generation is dumber. That is certainly not necessarilly true.
Obviously if you are smart enough to use the internet and find Anandtech, you are probably above average in education. Thus of course when you go to the supermarket or the county fair people look dumb. That doesn't mean we are dumber each generation, but that you probably are above average and seeing the below average people can be depressing.
This is true. I think it's probably also a fairly fixed percentage. However, there are seemingly so many more people everywhere than in the past, that means same percentage equals more dumb people. Therefore we do tend to come across more dumb people everyday.
I voted yes in the poll. At work, my staff and I deal with the public all day and we are often left shaking our heads.
The "super bright cavemen" had primitive tools (started with homo habilis I believe). The following generation of hominids had more advanced tools; the next more advanced; ad infinitum. One is not necessarily more advanced than the predecessor simply because each creation is an abstraction of the foundation layed by those that preceded us. Who is more genius, the creator of the abacus or the creator of the first digital computer? Were the Babylonians more genius mathematically than the Romans because they acknowledged a place-value system? What about the Hindus who, I believe, acknowledged the idea of a zero quantity? The Hindus would know nothing of zero without the Babylonians.
I think this goes without saying.
FeathersMcGraw
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- Oct 17, 2001
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On the other hand, I think that the pervasiveness of Internet access has enabled many more doofuses to vocalize their opinions to a wider audience (myself included). The number of dolts as a fraction of the population probably hasn't increased; you're just hearing more of them.
The ability to identify something inferior implies a level of superiority. Are you saying that one opinion (that which is relative to the observer) is more indicative of a "doofus" than another?
thebestMAX
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- Sep 14, 2000
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Amused
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One thing I've learned in life: For every person you run into that doesn't know something you know, you'll also find someone that knows something you do not know.
In other words, for every person you think is an idiot, there is someone else who thinks YOU are an idiot.
In other words, for every person you think is an idiot, there is someone else who thinks YOU are an idiot.
dullard
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To continue we now need the definition of the word "dumb".
You appear to be refering to "dumb" as a sign of intelligence. I feel that intelligence is a relative constant throughout time (but with good nutrition we can help a person maximize his/her intelligence). In that definition of "dumb" the person who invented the wheel is just as good as the person who invented any modern day invention.
However I used a different definition of "dumb". I referred to "dumb" as a lack of education or lack of knowledge. I feel that todays people have far more education than the cavemen of the past. As a whole the amount of education we have has increased dramatically over time - making each generation less "dumb". As we get more tools, we learn more about the universe and thus there is much more opportunity to gain knowledge that the cavemen never had the chance to know.
The answer is "possibly." Civilization has enabled really stupid people to not only survive, but to breed and acquire wealth. Welfare and lawsuits, anyone?
- Oct 28, 1999
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I had a post typed up but decided to delete it...
It basically summed up the point that children in poor families tend to post some of the lowest standardized test scores. This same demographic also happened to produce the most offspring. Conjecture: There are more "dumb" children (that grow up to be dumb adults) than "not-dumb" children that grow up to be "not dumb" adults.
Obviously there are several flaws with the logic - stardardized tests aren't really representative of real intelligence, wealthy families can just as easily have stupid kids, ect....
But the general premise still stands - the poorer demographics post the lowest scores, but produce the most children.
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