"Idiocracy" - Here comes the science

[ryoder 1,396]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[oldwomanc6 38]

Where do I start?

One question I always wanted to ask: What is your opinion on these threads that you post a link with no comment.

Are you pro, con, neutral?

I'm sure the answers vary according to what the article is, but, interesting pondering.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[quade 3]

oldwomanc6

Where do I start?
One question I always wanted to ask: What is your opinion on these threads that you post a link with no comment.
Are you pro, con, neutral?

Do you understand the movie reference? I think that's really the key here. If you understand the reference, then, to me, there is no question whatsoever.

On the other hand, if you don't, you probably think he's coming out of left field.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[oldwomanc6 38]

Especially, for someone who just registered today.

Sheesh!

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[-Joey- 0]

Well, the web developers at Huffington Post seem to think it's a good idea to auto-play two separate videos at the same time when you visit the site, so people must be getting dumber...

Skydiving is serious business

[FreeFallFiend 0]

Did anyone else find the testing method interesting? They are using reaction time as an indicator or intelligence. While I am sure there is some sort of a correlation I am shocked to see it was the main element in their testing.

Fiend

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark. - Thomas Hobbes.

[adamUK 3]

FreeFallFiend

Did anyone else find the testing method interesting? They are using reaction time as an indicator or intelligence. While I am sure there is some sort of a correlation I am shocked to see it was the main element in their testing.

It might require the study group to work out a problem and measures the duration taken to solve the problem. Of course that requires the person getting the answer correct. One would hope that another study would have been done to establish if there was a correlation between this test and actual intelligence levels.

[ryoder 1,396]

oldwomanc6

Where do I start?

One question I always wanted to ask: What is your opinion on these threads that you post a link with no comment.

Are you pro, con, neutral?

I'm sure the answers vary according to what the article is, but, interesting pondering.

Let's see if you get this reference.

"I can tell you 'Idiocracy' is real, because I have been through it! I have seen it! It has happend to me! Remember: I worked for Fortune 500 corporations for twenty-two fucking years!!"

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[turtlespeed 212]

ryoder

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/people-getting-dumber-human-intelligence-victoria-era_n_3293846.html

Proof that if you don't let nature take its course . . . its bad.

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[skydiver30960 0]

FreeFallFiend

Did anyone else find the testing method interesting? They are using reaction time as an indicator or intelligence. While I am sure there is some sort of a correlation I am shocked to see it was the main element in their testing.

I noticed that too. Interesting correlation. I would imagine (although I also would not be surprised to be wrong in this assumption) that there is some solid data backing up the relationship between reaction time and intellegence, or the data would be thrashed under peer review.

JUST considering changes in reaction times to visual stimuli over the years: I can imagine how, back when our lives depended on quick reaction times, this would be a trait that was very much selected: those slow to respond to the carnivore that just jumped out of the bushes are more likely to be dinner. I can see how this trait would be less needed in today's society, and so slower reaction times would creep back into being.

I'm also interested that we're seeing SLOWER reaction times. My thought would be that in today's "point and click" society, where virtually all of us were raised on Atari, Nintendo, and XBox, that such reaction times are actually lower rather than faster.


There was another similar thread here about another article that discussed the way our minds were changing from an organ of information storage to one of information sorting. That is, our brains were less and less concerned with knowing everything and more interested with knowing where to go to find information. I found this interesting, and it seems to jive with the state of things nowadays. I was always impressed when I read Edgar Allen Poe: for a man of his time, he knew a reasonable amount about just about everything. Foreign languages, science, history, medicine... he was a very learned man. But nowadays, the depth of human knowledge is so great, a person can spend their entire life studying one niche of our understanding, and still not know it all. It goes to figure that as we learn more and more, the truly "intelligent" ones will be the ones that can properly access AND USE that information rather than be overwhelmed by it.


Elvisio "skydiving is a stimulus-response experiment: bowling is the control group" ROdriguez

[ryoder 1,396]

skydiver30960

There was another similar thread here about another article that discussed the way our minds were changing from an organ of information storage to one of information sorting. That is, our brains were less and less concerned with knowing everything and more interested with knowing where to go to find information. I found this interesting, and it seems to jive with the state of things nowadays.

Sounds interesting. Do you have a link to the article?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[riddler 0]

Why do people even question the accuracy of Idiocracy? To me, it's like Darwinian evolution; it may not be absolutely true, but it's the best theory out there right now.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[popsjumper 2]

Quote

It might require the study group to work out a problem and measures the duration taken to solve the problem. Of course that requires the person getting the answer correct.

True story:
Girl taking her B license test enlisted 6 others, some of them old timers, to help her. After much discussion and debate and marking of answers, she turned it in....and failed.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[mistercwood 287]

Needs more electrolytes.

You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

[skydiver30960 0]

ryoder

Sounds interesting. Do you have a link to the article?

Sorry, nope. I did a few searches on keywords here to try and stumble across it but no such luck.

I was intrigued by the idea that the human brain was plastic (adaptable) enough to essentially change the way it works.

I was also bothered by the idea that "how smart we are" may one day be linked to how quickly we are able to Google something.

Elvisio " or , not sure which" Rodriguez

[ryoder 1,396]

Here is an interesting test I read about yesterday that seems to correlate with intelligence: http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=6422

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[mistercwood 287]

Neural plasticity is pretty awesome. I remember in first year psych learning about a girl who'd been born literally with only half a brain. While there were some things that she occasionally had difficulty with, by the time she was in her teens she was functionally no different from any other kid the same age - what brain matter she had just took up the slack...

You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

[Remster 24]

oldwomanc6

Especially, for someone who just registered today.

Sheesh!

What happened to Ryoder's reg date??????

Remster

[ryoder 1,396]

Remster

***Especially, for someone who just registered today.

Sheesh!

What happened to Ryoder's reg date??????

I register every day;
Doesn't everyone?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[popsjumper 2]

ryoder

******Especially, for someone who just registered today.

Sheesh!

What happened to Ryoder's reg date??????

I register every day;
Doesn't everyone?

Probation office doesn't count.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[ryoder 1,396]

popsjumper

*********Especially, for someone who just registered today.

Sheesh!

What happened to Ryoder's reg date??????

I register every day;
Doesn't everyone?

Probation office doesn't count.


Probation?
I thought we were talking about as a sex offender.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.