k1darkknight
05-07-2005, 10:14 AM
This post was a reply from this forum (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=341316), but I ended up saying MUCH more than fit within the confines of that particular topic (wandering though it already was...lol). That forum was about a psychiatric 'study' that found that "Email users suffered a ... drop in IQ scores". Prhitosan had mentioned that an article in "...the most recent edition of Wired {says that} the average IQ has been steadily raising due to the fact that our minds are constantly having to learn our way around new technology..."
I thought the definition of average IQ was that it = 100
aye, thats the case, but over the years they change the tests to make them more difficult. the test group takes both the old and new tests, on the old test the average was above 100, on the new one its at 100
another theory, reguarding the "increasing IQ" due to technology, & having to figure out workarounds...
I think that IQ - or intelligence - has gradually increased for MANY years, even WELL before anything resembling most modern technology. Prior to the industrial revolution, however, intelligence increased (more or less) equally, from the low end (idiots) to the high end (geniuses). In modern times, technology has enabled the more intelligent types to increase their intelligence MUCH quicker, but at the same time has caused the dumb to get dumber instead of gradually smarter. Basically, in my opinion, all technology has done is (essentially) 'separate the wheat from the chaff'.
On the other hand, as technology has gotten cheaper (relatively speaking), education (and relative intelligence) has gotten to where it depends less and less on income, social standing, or even intelligence of others. Now, an individual's intelligence depends more on the individual, than everyone else. Really, all one needs to improve one's intelligence is the will to do so. Public libraries started this trend decades ago, but the introduction of computers, and more recently the internet, makes it possible for anyONE to educate themselves on anyTHING, from (virtually) anyWHERE in the world. All one needs is the desire to do so. Show me another country where someone could go from being homeless to wealthy (and no, I don't have a specific example, that extreme, in mind), starting out with just the resources available to the general populace (in a library or otherwise)...
Can't do it?
Didn't think so!
k1darkknight aka ALWAYS learning (in the USA)
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(p.s. to avoid the flaming based on my last couple statements...I realize the same accomplishments may be possible in places like Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and other countries with similar socio-economic structures to the US, but the US was the first place that such a thing became possible to literally ANYONE who cared to try. I don't mean to imply that any of our global 'neighbors' are inferior to the US. Rather, I just mean to say that the reason the US is so great is that we basically showed everyone else how to make it possible. Anyone taking issue with any above statements will be addressed as comments warrant)
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You only stop learning when you're dead. Either literally or figuratively.
I thought the definition of average IQ was that it = 100
aye, thats the case, but over the years they change the tests to make them more difficult. the test group takes both the old and new tests, on the old test the average was above 100, on the new one its at 100
another theory, reguarding the "increasing IQ" due to technology, & having to figure out workarounds...
I think that IQ - or intelligence - has gradually increased for MANY years, even WELL before anything resembling most modern technology. Prior to the industrial revolution, however, intelligence increased (more or less) equally, from the low end (idiots) to the high end (geniuses). In modern times, technology has enabled the more intelligent types to increase their intelligence MUCH quicker, but at the same time has caused the dumb to get dumber instead of gradually smarter. Basically, in my opinion, all technology has done is (essentially) 'separate the wheat from the chaff'.
On the other hand, as technology has gotten cheaper (relatively speaking), education (and relative intelligence) has gotten to where it depends less and less on income, social standing, or even intelligence of others. Now, an individual's intelligence depends more on the individual, than everyone else. Really, all one needs to improve one's intelligence is the will to do so. Public libraries started this trend decades ago, but the introduction of computers, and more recently the internet, makes it possible for anyONE to educate themselves on anyTHING, from (virtually) anyWHERE in the world. All one needs is the desire to do so. Show me another country where someone could go from being homeless to wealthy (and no, I don't have a specific example, that extreme, in mind), starting out with just the resources available to the general populace (in a library or otherwise)...
Can't do it?
Didn't think so!
k1darkknight aka ALWAYS learning (in the USA)
--------------------
(p.s. to avoid the flaming based on my last couple statements...I realize the same accomplishments may be possible in places like Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and other countries with similar socio-economic structures to the US, but the US was the first place that such a thing became possible to literally ANYONE who cared to try. I don't mean to imply that any of our global 'neighbors' are inferior to the US. Rather, I just mean to say that the reason the US is so great is that we basically showed everyone else how to make it possible. Anyone taking issue with any above statements will be addressed as comments warrant)
--------------------
You only stop learning when you're dead. Either literally or figuratively.