Why is it the more advancements humans make, the "stupider" we get?

Well I was thinking, back in the 1800's, heck, even way earlier, man had such a complex way of speaking and etiquette, shakespeare type of stuff, but as humans progressed, it seems they kept losing more and more of that type of intelligence (I am speaking as a whole) And another point, back then women were very conservative (clothing-wise), what is it that made conservative women nowadays uncommon? Now I'm not saying I'm not one of the unintellectual people, and not literarly but I'm no where near the intelligence of those of back in the day (I'm sorry idk how to word it, I'm not actually calling anyone stupid) but yea, your thoughts/opinions are welcome!

calculators I mean people dont even need to know basic math really

Also people get alot lazier I remember the episode of futurama where bender wants a beer and a robot arm comes out and starts pouring beer on his shoulder and he has to move his mouth under the beer flow after saying "what is this the stone age" LOL

calculators I mean people dont even need to know basic math really

Also people get alot lazier I remember the episode of futurama where bender wants a beer and a robot arm comes out and starts pouring beer on his shoulder and he has to move his mouth under the beer flow after saying "what is this the stone age" LOL

Snakewiseman

Well I was thinking, back in the 1800's, heck, even way earlier, man had such a complex way of speaking and etiquette, shakespeare type of stuff, but as humans progressed, it seems they kept losing more and more of that type of intelligence (I am speaking as a whole) And another point, back then women were very conservative (clothing-wise), what is it that made conservative women nowadays uncommon? Now I'm not saying I'm not one of the unintellectual people, and not literarly but I'm no where near the intelligence of those of back in the day (I'm sorry idk how to word it, I'm not actually calling anyone stupid) but yea, your thoughts/opinions are welcome!

guitarshr3dd3r

I believe the working/middle class of any time prior to the 19th century disagrees with you. :PBiancaDK

Don't know, perhaps maybe because

Too busy working compared to the pre-industrial era (thus not much freedom to explore what's outside)

Materialism is the zeitgeist, not philosophical thinking.

Technology makes us dependent

Prosperity and luxury make us spoiled

TV and movies make us learn new things, but not as much as actually going outside and witness things

I believe the working/middle class of any time prior to the 19th century disagrees with you. :PBiancaDK

asimo would like to disagree with you.

Humans haven't gotten dumber, everything points to us being smarter than ever before. The world literacy rates are higher than they were years ago, more people are attending college than ever before. People just say these things without any real backing. Back in Shakespearian times most people were illiterate.

It is all about the communication age and how it has connected the world and transformed us through radio, television, Internet, etc...

probably because we have discovered speaking in a complex way and etiquette are pretty stupid, especially ettiquette

I didn't know that Shakespeare was a representation of the common people of the 1800s.Lonelynight

[QUOTE="Lonelynight"]I didn't know that Shakespeare was a representation of the common people of the 1800s.guitarshr3dd3r

That kind of writing would be rare to see back then...

I'm pretty sure many commoners or peasants in the past weren't that intellectual compare to us, mainly because of the lack of education to read, racial supremacy, etc. People like Shakepere only represented a small fraction of the whole human population.

What does dressing differently or speaking differently have to do with intelligence?

Also id bet that a ten year old today would me much smarter then an adult would be in the 1800s/early 1900's.

In the 1800's people thought it was ok to enslave other people and treat them as property because they had dark skin. More intelligent?SteveTabernacle

Shakespeare was an incredibly talented wordsmith; it's not as though everybody in his day went around talking like they did in his plays.

Furthermore, "thee" and "thou" and so forth only sounds refined and distinguished now because we romanticize the past like crazy. That was just the way people talked.

And even furthermore, if you want to apply contemporary standards in one's evaluation of people hundreds of years ago, they were terrible spellers. :P

[QUOTE="guitarshr3dd3r"]

Well I was thinking, back in the 1800's, heck, even way earlier, man had such a complex way of speaking and etiquette, shakespeare type of stuff, but as humans progressed, it seems they kept losing more and more of that type of intelligence (I am speaking as a whole) And another point, back then women were very conservative (clothing-wise), what is it that made conservative women nowadays uncommon? Now I'm not saying I'm not one of the unintellectual people, and not literarly but I'm no where near the intelligence of those of back in the day (I'm sorry idk how to word it, I'm not actually calling anyone stupid) but yea, your thoughts/opinions are welcome!

danwallacefan

Because it takes longer for us to realize and see it.

Complex speech or whatever you want to call it is not a sign of intelligence, the English language is filled with completely unnecessary words that seemingly exist for no other reason then to make people feel like they are somehow superior to others. I also find that the less complex words often carry much more emotional impact than more "eloquent" ones, which just sound far too sanitized and dishonest for my liking.

What we use our intelligence for is just changing.

Like in Calculus how everything (almost) is taught on a graping calculator.

Current students struggle at non-calculator old school lessons, but can even surpass the teacher in calculator know how and easeof use.

Though I can tell you for a fact average intelligence has increased astronomically sine Renaissance time (and your Shakespeareans)

Technically most people back in the days did not speak like Shakespeare. It was the rare few 'intellectuals'/aristocracy/etc that did. The rest of society did not have what you would call 'civil'/'sophisticated' speech.
As for conservative women; it was a trend back then. The non-conservative woman is a trend today.
Back then they considered indigenous peoples savages. Englishmen were considered barbarians by Roman standards. Slaves were seen as half-human or not even that. Clearly under current ideologies that would be considered stupid and non-sensical.

Back then they believed in supernatural beings, with Gods, Titans/etc creating earthquakes, floods/etc. Clearly by today's standards that is considered stupid.

Have we become more stupid than in the past? Clearly not. What you are concentrating on are the smart people of the past; of which there were few. You cannot compare Shakespeare to your average country bumpkin. Nor can you compare a serf in the past to Einstein, or to Stephen Hawking.
Today we have tea-baggers. In the past we had angry mobs with pitchforks.
Today we have the internet, we have books and other sources of information and learning material. In the past, only priests/monks and certain people in aristocracy knew how to read.

On a social level we are much smarter than what society was in the past due to greater access to education, to literature and the like. People simply believe we have become 'stupider' because they concentrate on the smart people of the past, and compare them to the 'dumb' people of the present.

As several other posters have already said, the world is getting smarter. More people are able to read, write, attend school, and hold important jobs. Speech is different but I don't think it represents intelligence. I know a lot of people who speak "gangsta" yet are quite intelligent.

calculators I mean people dont even need to know basic math really

Also people get alot lazier I remember the episode of futurama where bender wants a beer and a robot arm comes out and starts pouring beer on his shoulder and he has to move his mouth under the beer flow after saying "what is this the stone age" LOL

Snakewiseman