Are we, as mankind, devolving?

[Game]

1 in 10 births are artificialy induced maybe in a 3-4 generations we will be a sterile race ?

 

[Cook$]

Extinction is the rule. Adapt or die.

 

[NSKlad]

I believe Transhumanism will be a common aspect of civilised society within the next, say, 300 years. I look forward to it. Thoughts and opinions?

 

[Dup]

I believe Transhumanism will be a common aspect of civilised society within the next, say, 300 years. I look forward to it. Thoughts and opinions?

Happens already mate, look at gene councelling for Cystic fibrosis or Sickel cell Anaemia....they screen neonatals for defective genes, take em out and put the correct gene in, providing the parents are cool with their 4 cell old baby getting poked in a petri dish.....ethical issues are a bit against it, but it saves the kids from a s**** life.

 

[NSKlad]

Happens already mate, look at gene councelling for Cystic fibrosis or Sickel cell Anaemia....they screen neonatals for defective genes, take em out and put the correct gene in, providing the parents are cool with their 4 cell old baby getting poked in a petri dish.....ethical issues are a bit against it, but it saves the kids from a s**** life.

An interesting fact, cheers. I was thinking more along the lines of human to IT interfacing (e.g. Ghost in the Shell or most sci-fi novels)

 

[Jlowe]

So we take advantage of the technologies that we create (a perk of being an intelligent species) however we have been taking advantage of them for so long we have lost touch of what it would be like without them. Except short of a natural disaster or Pandemic odds are we will never be without them as they're are people qualified with the know how to do so. just because we all use the tech doesn't mean we all need to know how to build/service it. I think we all fit into a slot in society intelligent or not which makes our world go round. For example bin men... they are an integral part of our infrastructure. but you don't need to be einstein to be one. Of course this is ignoring the scroungers on the doll but i have a simple solution for that make them do community work for their benefits after all that's who's paying them.

On another note we can't be getting thicker as a whole compared to the past if education became compulsory and as of last year is now compulsory until the age of 18. Also if you want to look at it on a scale of the human race as a whole how can we be moving backwards if i was taught how to generate electricity with a lemon (useful i know) when at one point we didn't know it existed let alone how to use it.

I got this from a book dan brown i think but if you take our progress through technologies and stuck it on a graph against time we are moving in a positive curve with technology becoming more advanced at an accelerated rate if we were all becoming thick wouldnt we be slowing down... but hey im 16 what do i know (i also went off on a tangent sorry about that)

 

[no-infernomark]

I don't know if people are getting dumber or lazier. we seem to rely on ever smarter technologies to "do" our daily living for us. In that sense, yes we are getting dumber.

As a for instance, my mental arithmetic is pretty good, not professor level or anything but I can count quickly and accurately how many parts we have by adding up boxes with random quantities or whatever. I can work out the vat on prices of things, add up the sh*t in the shopping trolley and that kind of stuff.

I work with people, and i sh*t you not, who cannot tell me how many parts we have in 8 boxes with 12 parts in each. Thay actually need a calculator. I could have told you that in f*cking primary school.

I know people who cannot change a car wheel, I know people who when presented with very SIMPLE problems seem to think their lives are falling apart as opposed to trying to figure out a fix. At the base levels I think schools are teaching the wrong stuff, instead of actual skills we need in life like wiring plugs, changing car wheels and so on they're convinced that teaching kids their human rights and protecting their delicate little bubble wrapped existences from the horrors of being given a bollocking for doing wrong.

I could go on, ain't got time.

there is an old Chinese proverb by Confucius who said "i hear and i forget, i see and i understand, i do and i remember" maybe in society its not so much that intelligence is becoming a lower standard, its just not channeled effectively. when you see people whose families have done sod all with their lives and they have kids they do exactly the same 9times out of 10. some people don't need to change a wheel because it would be a stupid choice in nicking a car with a puncture. there was a point when i couldnt change a car tyre, but when i was shown i then was able to. i totally agree that the curriculum is a bit weak but then if we only showed kids how to wire a plug or change a tyre it might hinder the chances of weening out the ones who will become doctors and nurses and all we will have is a shed load of mechanics and electricians. the majority of society knows no boundaries, and a lot of people just dont care because whats the worst that can happen. like tonight on my way to work, some punk started waving his fists at me as i was driving down the road and he was walking in the middle of it. fact is the people who do have and acknowledge their own intelligence will become a someone in their own right, the people who do not will become just another person living another meaningless life because thats all they know or have grown to know.

 

[no-infernomark]

SO my point, were not devolving, or evolving. Were getting lazy and stupid. People should be forced to join one of the forces for a year i think, i know they do it in some countries. The skillset you get from that is amazing, no matter how dorky or gym ridden you are.

only problem with this is.....people will always turn to crime, not a vast majority but a lot of people, some are not very good as we are all aware, they are as you say stupid. so these stupid people join the army and then come out trained in survival and with a skillset that may make the police forces job a lot harder.

 

[Dup]

only problem with this is.....people will always turn to crime, not a vast majority but a lot of people, some are not very good as we are all aware, they are as you say stupid. so these stupid people join the army and then come out trained in survival and with a skillset that may make the police forces job a lot harder.

If we all do it, we are effectively equal, therefore nullifying this problem

 

[no-infernomark]

not unless we are all the same size, to many variables between people to say we are all equal. cognitive function, size, build, stamina, fatigue levels, responsiveness all are different in everyone. a 6'6 mountain of a man would fair much better against a skinny runt. brute force would take over and regardless of how much training sometimes it just dont cut it.