Posted on 07/15/2013 1:01:09 PM PDT by Twotone
Did you know that the incidence of cancer in the United States has been declining for nearly 20 years? That the spread of pornography correlates with a decline in rape? That average IQs are going up substantially all around the world? These are just some of the truths that are well-known to the scholars who study those subjects but generally come as a surprise to even the best-educated among us.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
“People Everywhere Are Getting Smarter”
I’ve got to claim BS on this one. There are many studies that show the opposite:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-11/are-people-getting-dumber-one-geneticist-thinks-so
Not if Congress is any indicator.
Not in obabaville , formerly the United States of America, they are not. Smart people don’t elect bastards like Obama to lead them. Smart people do not for Democrats or Repubcrats for that matter.
Hey! That’s me!
Through our children and grandchildren, we live on into the future...whatever that will entail.
bkmk
most articles have an agenda. I believe theirs is to say “the writers of our constitution were really dumb, while Obama Phone owners are actually very smart!”
Clearly, before 1960 when these crimes were rare, they must have had awesome bandwidth for porn.
You need a shave.
Looked at your link. It consists of speculation without any data providing evidence to support it.
Whereas the Flynn Effect has required recalibrating the IQ tests every decade or so for most of the last century.
It should be pointed out that this increase is in IQ, not necessarily in intelligence.
I'll bet that is 100% due to the fact that the number of cigarette smokers has dropped dramatically since the 1960’s.
The most important risk factor for cancer is age.
As our average age goes higher, eventually, the number of cancer victims will go higher, too.
"Herbert Gintis, co-director of the Preference Network team, speculates that markets bring strangers into contact on a regular basis, encouraging people to develop more concern for others beyond their family and immediate neighbors. Instead of parochialism, being integrated into markets encourages a spirit of ecumenism."
My father, who owned and operated his own grocery store, used to tell me that "Everyone who walks through that front door is my friend!"
What makes you think rapes were rare before 1960?
Rape statistics have always been a little funny (since rapes are so underreported) but statistics for other violent crimes shows that they were higher in the first half of the 20th century than they are now.
We tend to think of the past as quiet and peaceful -- in reality, the US violent crime rate was much higher than it is now. The last time the murder rate was as low as it is now was 1910.
Better nutrition and health may mean people around the world are getting smarter (and taller). Whether that will continue and whether it’s still going on in the developed countries are questions that are harder to answer.
Example: porn and rape. Porn went up, rape went down. Fine. But during the same time span:
Conversely...
Automation is great but how exactly does that increase the number of jobs for humans? Actually we're facing a new problem: for a small but growing percentage of the population there is no job available they can do that a computerized machine can't do faster, cheaper, better.
A bright side of the offshoring of American jobs is that we have gotten used to the idea of not having one. That will enable faster robotics adoption in America. But what are we going to do with our oversupply of human pets?
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