I agree 100% with your analysis of the contributing factors to declining human intelligence. The question I grapple with, is whether this is an emergent phenomenon or whether it's planned. There's clear documentary evidence that the dumbing down of the 'education' system was planned, by the robber barons who wanted a workforce of obedient factory workers, rather than independent-minded self-starters. The decades-long delay between the recognition that exposure to lead lowers IQ, and legislation to remove lead from petrol and paint, hints at intentional exploitation of an emergent phenomenon. I suspect it's the same with technology.
As for what we do with those around us who seem to be becoming more stupider by the day, I can't fault your analysis - we need to have compassion for them, just as we would have for someone who was born with a terrible deformity, or suffered a catastrophic brain injury. Aside from the moral argument in favour of cultivating compassion, it serves a very practical purpose: it helps to defuse the anger towards these people that might otherwise bubble up, causing harm to ourselves as well as our relationship with them.
I believe that humans are far more connected to the earth and biosphere than we realize. We have been shaped by numerous near extinctions, bottlenecks and overpopulation time and again through various species all the way back to single cells floating in the primordial sea.
I believe this has left us more sensitive to matters of disaster than we believe, and probably living in a world where species are more interconnected and express more species-level adaptations to past challenges than we know. How has humanity dealt with overpopulation leading to population crash and scarcity in the past? We don't know, most of those episodes predate history.
We do know from experiments like the Rat Utopia that species and societies respond in unexpected ways to these pressures. It could be that our physiology is responding to abundance by reducing fertility and the expression of more self-serving behaviors. Maybe much like how obesity is spiking, stupidity is too, because obesity, lower fertility and lower intelligence are adaptive in a scenario where plenty leads to population collapse and scarcity. These calls could be coming from inside the genome.
"Calls from inside the genome". Well said:They definitely are to some degree. All cells seem to have death built into them - i recall reading interesting evidence that Telomeres are a main mechanism in animal DNA.
I love looking at things from an evolutionary lens, as you have done here. However, all genetic instructions depend on environment. This has always been a strong indicator that cultural or environmental factors (see Dr Glenna Swan for a large list of these) were more explanatory in the decline of fertility/birth rates in industrialised nations. For similar reasons, it suggests that the recent dramatic further decline in birth rates among covid jabbed populations are more due to the injurious jabs, and only partly due to, say, 'genetic expression in an environment of fear' or similar from the fascinating rat experiments. Of course, all this assumes consciousness is emergent. If consciousness is fundamental, and space-time is emergent, as many suggest, then the 'fundamental interconnectedness of all things' is the truer cause of everything we perceive!
Excellent article, Shane, and that photo is worth a thousand words. But not a thousand of your words, which still beat it in clarity and elucidation. You're certainly not getting more stupider ;-)
In the 1980s, A&W tried to compete with the McDonald's Quarter Pounder by selling a 1/3 pound burger at a lower cost. The product failed, because most customers thought the 1/4 pounder was bigger.
these dumbarsery memes just in...Transcriber B's 'Time Out for Mask Memes'
https://transcriberb.substack.com/p/time-out-for-mask-memes
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
― George Carlin
I agree 100% with your analysis of the contributing factors to declining human intelligence. The question I grapple with, is whether this is an emergent phenomenon or whether it's planned. There's clear documentary evidence that the dumbing down of the 'education' system was planned, by the robber barons who wanted a workforce of obedient factory workers, rather than independent-minded self-starters. The decades-long delay between the recognition that exposure to lead lowers IQ, and legislation to remove lead from petrol and paint, hints at intentional exploitation of an emergent phenomenon. I suspect it's the same with technology.
As for what we do with those around us who seem to be becoming more stupider by the day, I can't fault your analysis - we need to have compassion for them, just as we would have for someone who was born with a terrible deformity, or suffered a catastrophic brain injury. Aside from the moral argument in favour of cultivating compassion, it serves a very practical purpose: it helps to defuse the anger towards these people that might otherwise bubble up, causing harm to ourselves as well as our relationship with them.
Good summary Shane, thank you for another great article for us to contemplate
I believe that humans are far more connected to the earth and biosphere than we realize. We have been shaped by numerous near extinctions, bottlenecks and overpopulation time and again through various species all the way back to single cells floating in the primordial sea.
I believe this has left us more sensitive to matters of disaster than we believe, and probably living in a world where species are more interconnected and express more species-level adaptations to past challenges than we know. How has humanity dealt with overpopulation leading to population crash and scarcity in the past? We don't know, most of those episodes predate history.
We do know from experiments like the Rat Utopia that species and societies respond in unexpected ways to these pressures. It could be that our physiology is responding to abundance by reducing fertility and the expression of more self-serving behaviors. Maybe much like how obesity is spiking, stupidity is too, because obesity, lower fertility and lower intelligence are adaptive in a scenario where plenty leads to population collapse and scarcity. These calls could be coming from inside the genome.
"Calls from inside the genome". Well said:They definitely are to some degree. All cells seem to have death built into them - i recall reading interesting evidence that Telomeres are a main mechanism in animal DNA.
I love looking at things from an evolutionary lens, as you have done here. However, all genetic instructions depend on environment. This has always been a strong indicator that cultural or environmental factors (see Dr Glenna Swan for a large list of these) were more explanatory in the decline of fertility/birth rates in industrialised nations. For similar reasons, it suggests that the recent dramatic further decline in birth rates among covid jabbed populations are more due to the injurious jabs, and only partly due to, say, 'genetic expression in an environment of fear' or similar from the fascinating rat experiments. Of course, all this assumes consciousness is emergent. If consciousness is fundamental, and space-time is emergent, as many suggest, then the 'fundamental interconnectedness of all things' is the truer cause of everything we perceive!
Uh oh, that means we may be making the universal interconnected consciousness stupider...
This got me 'deep belly laugh' good :)
Excellent article, Shane, and that photo is worth a thousand words. But not a thousand of your words, which still beat it in clarity and elucidation. You're certainly not getting more stupider ;-)
the gift that keeps on giving dept.... francesleader.substack.com /p/anarchic-memery
ANARCHIC MEMERY
Frances Leader 8/23/2023
Solidarity in opposition to the NWO!
https://gab.com/RanBuc79/posts/108208055592474804
In the 1980s, A&W tried to compete with the McDonald's Quarter Pounder by selling a 1/3 pound burger at a lower cost. The product failed, because most customers thought the 1/4 pounder was bigger.
This is why I don't argue online.