The Flynn Effect

Krimpi

by Krimpi

Story

Are we really becoming ever smarter?

Studies show, so scientists tell

Humankind is doing intellectually very well

Scoring three points more per decade doing the standardized IQ test

All your worries that things would go down the drain, just put them all to rest

On the other hand, if we are getting ever smarter as fast as scholars say

I wonder how did our ancestors make it at their time from day to day?

Calculating backwards, subtracting 3 points per decade on the IQ scale

Would make the ancient Greek and Roman look intellectually very pale

Knowing their achievements in mathematics, art and architecture I always considered them absolute aces

My IQ backward calculation now tells me they hardly could tie their own shoelaces

If we confront this IQ number crunching statistics with the latest research in DNA

We get the impression that we are actually going the other way

Our modern Homo Sapiens DNA differs from our Stone Age ancestors by 2% – this is the latest count

Compared to the chimp, we vary only 1%, a comparatively small amount.

Therefore, we are meanwhile closer to the chimp than to our own ourselves, as we were

We might get smarter by the day
. but does that really take us anywhere?

© Krimpi 2023-03-03

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