It's official the human race is starting to de-evolve

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Maybe birth control ain't such a bad thing!

Why is America so obsessed with babies and population growth and raising another generation of dumb spoiled teenagers

after all, if we all allow uneducated teens inside inner city regions to breed and breed and keep collecting welfare rewards our planet will soon be populated with five billion idiots.

We spend enough aid as it is trying to provide medicine and computers and food and books to third world nations, how can we continue to do this relief stuff when Western nations are getting dumbed down?

British teenagers have lower IQs than their counterparts did 30 years ago
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educatio...than-their-counterparts-did-30-years-ago.html
Teenagers in Britain have lower IQ scores than their counterparts did a generation ago, according to a study by a leading expert

I blame some of it on Tv and the Text messaging, but a lot of it can be blame on population growth and unsustainable welfare programs.

Bring back Charles Darwin,
Survival of the Brightest!

 

[Plecostomus]

Yeah there is really no reason to develop your mental skills. Calculator gives you the answers at the touch of a button, Internet knows everything for you, just ask Google... no need to learn proper drafting skills because CAD programs can make anyone a drawing expert... Accounting software makes it so much easier to figure your business now and so much easier to pull scams on the tax department...

Its not so much going to school to learn a skill anymore it's more going to school to learn the latest software package that will do everything for you while you sit back and bitch about the final play of the Super Bowl.

 

[SeerSGB]

Yeah there is really no reason to develop your mental skills. Calculator gives you the answers at the touch of a button, Internet knows everything for you, just ask Google... no need to learn proper drafting skills because CAD programs can make anyone a drawing expert... Accounting software makes it so much easier to figure your business now and so much easier to pull scams on the tax department...

Its not so much going to school to learn a skill anymore it's more going to school to learn the latest software package that will do everything for you while you sit back and bitch about the final play of the Super Bowl.

Don't get me started.

My son's (would have been) Kindergarten teacher is going to teach her class "Calculator usage and skills" are a preamble to 1st grade math (Just 1 of a dozen+ reasons we decided that homeschool our son through his kindergarten year). 1st grade math and his school saw no problem with them using a calculator...let me repeat 1st grade math and they are going to let them use a calculator. I was looked at like a caveman when I suggested that, a most, the kids needed an abacus and didn't need to "learn" math by using a freaking calculator. The excuse: We'll we're afraid that getting to many wrong answers will disappoint them and make them sad.

I don't trust tax-software, I still do my taxes with an adding machine, #2 pencil, and a stack of forms and instruction booklets. Then transcript the numbers over in black ink by hand onto the forms going to Uncle Sam.

For business, at most, I'll use Excel to run a balance sheet/check register. Beyond that, hand written ledgers, a 12" ruler, and an adding machine is all I need.

Hell I still use a abacus from time to time just to keep the skills sharp. The biggest thing I like and dislike is the spellchecker on the comp, and it's love hate-- since I've noticed that my own spelling skills are going downhill due to relying on a spellchecker instead of a hard-copy dictionary.

 

[Plecostomus]

Your post SeerSBG is exactly what I'm talking about. Getting wrong answers motivated me to TRY AGAIN until I got it right.

The spell-checker has had an opposite effect on me. It's a game now to see if I can get as few red-lines as possible.

 

[Triskelion]

watt is ron with relaying on techno leggy? My spill chick works fain. You pea pull is knee jerk reactors.

 

[Lindley]

You've got a spell chick? Awesome! Does she look like Alyson Hannigan?

 

[Hermiod]

You've got a spell chick? Awesome! Does she look like Alyson Hannigan?

I want mine to look like Zatanna. Mmmmmmm fishnets....

 

[Franklin]

So, should we put a moritorium on the growth of technology, access to information, and things that make life easier?
Oh, wait. If IQs are going down, a moritorium on the growth of technology won't be necessary. It'll be self-correcting.

I don't know. If there is a problem, it's social, not technological. My kindergartener is learning basic math, how to read, and computer skills in our public school. My fourth grader has yet to touch a calculator. Adults determine what children will do and how they will take advantage of things or be manipulated by them. The children are not all to blame just because they don't have to wash clothes by beating them on a rock down by a stream or because they play Wii games instead of carving their own toys out of balsa wood.

 

[Jadzia]

I'm not sure there is such a thing as de-evolve... Intelligent reasoning for humans may become more of a redundancy as machines get better at thinking for us. But redundancy is an opportunity to become more efficient life forms, because we can survive and procreate with a lower total energy expenditure. Brains consume 50% of our energy, iirc. So that would be evolution, not de-evolution.

And if a cognitive redundancy trend is genuinely happening, and continues indefinitely, consciousness itself would become genetically redundant for the survival and procreation of our bodies.

Humanity would end up a zombie race, with bodies led reflexively through a machine managed existence.

Sounds like a TOS episode

 

[Brent]

I think its just cause kids these days don't care, they are lazy and don't put effort into learning, a lot of them are spoiled and aren't thinking of their future because so much is given to them. The resources are out there to be very educated if you want to be, but you have to want to take advantage of the system provided.

 

[scottydog]

Anyone seen the movie Idiocracy? It appears to be coming true.

 

[blablover5]

I find it funny how I am sure the exact same things were said at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

In fact I suspect you could go back to the dawn of time and find on caveman talking about how the kids of today don't know how to take down a mastadon like his generation did.

You have this quote from Plato "What is happening to our young
people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They
ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions.
Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Or "I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint" (Hesiod, 8th century BC).

It's amazing how every young generation is the worst ever.

 

[Franklin]

I find it funny how I am sure the exact same things were said at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

In fact I suspect you could go back to the dawn of time and find on caveman talking about how the kids of today don't know how to take down a mastadon like his generation did.

You have this quote from Plato "What is happening to our young
people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They
ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions.
Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Or "I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint" (Hesiod, 8th century BC).

It's amazing how every young generation is the worst ever.

Why can't they be like we were?
Perfect in every way.
What's the matter with kids these daaaaaaaaaayyys?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Even if true, this isn't "de-evolution;" we are continuing to adapt to our changing environment.

Evolution is not some kind of engine designed to produce what we recognize as intelligence, after all.

 

[Franklin]

Even if true, this isn't "de-evolution;" we are continuing to adapt to our changing environment.

Evolution is not some kind of engine designed to produce what we recognize as intelligence, after all.

Correct. Evolution is just change. Any change. Good or bad. What works, lasts. What doesn't -- . The word "de-evolution" was probably coined by the same people who've given us "proactive."

 

[Emher]

See I always found out and learned stuff because it was fun. Whatever happened to such a simple thing?

 

[RAMA]

Kids today are a lot more aware than we give them credit for. Plus education is relative...ask a kid in 1900 America the same questions, I doubt they would know much geography.

Bring back Charles Darwin,
Survival of the Brightest!

Let's not forget that evolution is often simplified, and just as important as sheer intelligence, is adaptation.

RAMA

 

[Plecostomus]

See I always found out and learned stuff because it was fun. Whatever happened to such a simple thing?

Well in the vernacular of today's sexuality-conscious youth "that's totally gay."

Humor aside, learning isn't instant-gratification. High video-game scores, bragging that you banged that chick, drinking soooooooo much last night... Those are real and tangible things... here and now and in the moment. Acquiring facts and figures on something that interests you, actually going out and taking a walk to see if you can spot that particular type of butterfly mentioned in the book... Those are irrelevant.

At least these are the types of people I encounter in my daily life, either in my travels to and from work or when I have to deal with my sister. Seriously, if learning is "so totally gay" then why are you even IN University at this point?


Seriously as I get older the "younger" generation seems to be getting shallower. I learned to weld when I was very young, by the time I was 14 I knew more about cars than most adults, and I could do some elaborate BASIC programming on my old Commodore. Now you try to engage someone in conversation beyond TV or Video Games you are "so totally gay."

I would like nothing more than to get hold of someone at a young age and get them interested in something other than themselves.

 

[Captain X]

The excuse: We'll we're afraid that getting to many wrong answers will disappoint them and make them sad.

Pardon my bluntness, but this is the problem, not the technological dependence. The idea that everyone's opinion is equally valid and that there are no stupid questions - coddling basically - is where the problem lies. This is the reason I quit having anything to do with scouting, because merit badges stopped being about "merit" and became something we were supposed to give the kids so they felt good about themselves.

When there is no motivation to do better, people tend not to do better, kids especially so - why work hard on getting a good grade when they can just play games? So it's not the technology, it's the unwillingness to let children fail.

 

[SeerSGB]

Think about this: it's going to get worse before it get better. Cause this generation of kids are going to grow up to be teachers and teach the next generation the same thing; on and on and on.

It's alwso the same mentality that had a hand in the creation of the current recession: Everyone has a "right" to a house; Everyone has the "right" to credit and financing. Ignore whether they can afford it or not, whether they can payback the money or not, give it to them anyway.

"No" and "Failure" are more taboo than "fuck" and "cunt" cause it might hurt someone's feelings to tell them they've failed at their assigned duties. It might hurt their feelings when the bank says "No, you can't pay for a 500,000 home on a cashier and stockboy's weekly take home."