I had read in an article that the human brain is jump in intelegence by .005% to 4% of brain use every generation. It's a strange theory and hard to prove, but is it possible?

If this is the brain usage theory, I personally have made threads about it in the past and I finally understand what the numbers represent now.

In total, 100% of the human brain is used; like all other parts in nature, each part of our brain has a purpose, and is used at one time or another, no matter how little. The theory that only a "Certain amount of our brain is being used" is a legitimate theory, but it is interpreted the completely wrong way.

The "Amount of brain being used" more reasonably refers to how much of your brain you are using at one time. Because different parts of your brain have different, seemingly specified functions, we are only using certain parts of our brain based on the activity that we are participating in. These numbers seem less drastic when you take this into account, because using "More" or "All" of your brain at one time would essentially be very impressive multi-tasking and be a firm example of an amazing level of self control over one's body.

I suppose it would be possible. In modern times our bodies dont need to be so strong, muscular, etc., because we use cars and we dont need to hunt wild deer and stuff. We use guns to fight of big animals and stuff. So maby a little bit of our motor function capacity is being converted into brain power which is more useful these days.

This has been a personal theory of mine for a few years now, great topic Naes

i can't say that i think humans are getting smarter. think about it. we are slowly destroying the only place we have to live. how smart is that? and we have become so dependent on certain things (gas, electricity, etc.) that we would be doomed if any of those failed, because we have lost our natural instincts.

Our cumulative knowledge base has increased exponentially, therefore more information is available to the newest generations. However, knowledge and information doesn't necessarily prove wisdom. All I have to do is hear 16 seconds of hip hop to realise that.

There's nothing wrong with hip hop. In fact, I love the music.

What we have lost in natural insticts we have compensated for, in fact, gotten a huge return on the invested, with our intelligence. All animals destroy the place they live; the only difference is that they die before they can make too big a difference. Humans are the only animals with the intelligence to be able to realize what they are doing, and take steps to correct it.

I think our ability to reason is what's done it.

I wonder how evolution developed the consciousness.

There are some fascinating theories concerning the link between the human subconscious and matters of quantum physics. There are scientists who believe that what we term as consciousness is in actuality the interpretation that our physical senses make of this light contact at the very fringes of our physical make-up. It is similar to deducing that a storm might be approaching based on only the softest brush of the breeze on your skin. That any connection at all might exists within ourselves in the macro universe and anything in the quantum universe is tremendously exciting to me!

Well, my two cents on this problem is that man should once again live in harmony with nature. Fueled by the Industrial Revolution, we have become a species that seeks to dominate nature instead. Both ends of the spectrum, domination and harmony, can lead to a safer tomarrow, but not without side effects. If we finally dominate our entire environment, then what is going to happen to all the natural wonder and beauty, let alone other species?

There is no need to equate domination with destruction. Simply because we are the top of the food chain does not mean that we are required to eat everything below us.

Then why does it taste so good?

aquatus is totally right.


No, we haven't lost our natural instincts >_>

If we did, we would not eat, we would not protect our selves, we would not be scared of death, we wouldn't reproduce, etc. We would very quickly adapt to a life without electricity, that's why the human mind is considered intelligent.


We need to eat meat, so we eat cows. If humans thaught that meat tasted like crap, we would not eat it and die.

Its not as if we eat everything under us in the food chain. When was the last time you ate something that didn't come from a farm? Perhaps yesterday you had some endagered indian black eyed mini tigre? I didn't think so.


What, you think that we as humans actively and willingly "dominate" and exterminate nature, with the sole purpose of destroying it? >_>
We embrace nature.

Also, what a lot of people forget is that humans are part of nature. They are a species like any other.


Conciousness now is exactly the same as it was when our uni cellular fore fathers floated around the oceans.

When I said getting smarter by using a larger percent of our brains I ment with our consiousness, not overall usage by our body. Sorry about that. But there are many dormant areas in our brain that doctors and scientists do not even know what there for.


Naes

I'm not sure what you mean by using more of our consciousness. What do you mean by consciousness,a nd how could we use more of it than we do?

Incidentaly, I'm something of a fan of neuroscience, and I cannot think of any dormant areas in the human brain, to say nothing of areas for which we haven't a clue what they are for.

Um, no.

I don't believe there are any "dormant" areas of the brain. Think about it; if we no longer needed it then evolution would breed it out of us. Each part of our brain is used for something. The part about scientists not knowing what the various parts of the brain actually do - I feel that there are some areas of the brain of which science is unsure of the limits of what it can do, or has an idea but cannot prove it yet, rather than simply not knowing what it is for exactly. Each day brings new breakthroughs regarding science and technology.

I don't think the human race would be "doomed" by the loss of natural resources. I have every belief that we will simply adapt to the situation, hard as it may be.

This is such an interesting topic and I have so many thoughts about it I'm finding them quite hard to keep in order so bear with me on this (and, yes I know I'm kind of contradicting my first post before anyone points it out...)

Going back to the industrial revolution - nobody knew at that time how damaging it would be to the Earth's climate. As technology has progressed so has the search for less damaging ways of providing power etc. I feel this in itself shows that we as a race are gaining more knowledge and trying to adapt that knowledge to our situation.

As far as the intelligence part goes I find it hard to quantify that. Most people believe that the ancient peoples weren't as intelligent as the present day, I think that is false. Take the Egyptians for example. They were master stone masons and builders, and even today we find it extremely difficult to replicate their monuments using their methods. Another example, and maybe a better one, is herb lore. All our medicinal knowledge started out from the knowledge of which natural substances healed which ailments. Today we have synthetic drugs and the knowledge of the old ways is mostly lost.

I believe however that intelligence related to learning is on the rise with each generation, kids nowadays seem to pick up so much more than I ever did. I think this is evolution adapting us to cope with a technology based lifestyle.

We are not getting smarter as individuals, but rather as a whole. Humanity as a whole has gained so much knowledge in the past 100 years its insane. While at the same time, are we putting this to good use? No!!!! Who ever said that we need to get into contact with nature again was right. And I beleive that time is upon us. If you think about in the past few years we are seeing all kinds of man made and natural disaters. People are becoming fed up with the way the world is taking shape. I believe that in the next 6 to 7 years there will be a huge change in the way people view humans in correlation to the earth, and the universe as a whole. Science and religon should start to blend, and i believe NASA or someone along those lines just might discover something in space that puts a whole new spin on existance. So yes we are slowly but surley growing smarter, but the best is yet to come!!!!

That is very interesting. I agree that we are not more intelligent than the Egyptians. If you would give all the knowlage we know now to the Egyptians, they would make their own mega-cities, build their own cars, planes, ships and drive those cars, planes and ships. They would make their own TVs, washing machines, hot tubs, etc.. They would be just like us. The only difference between them and us is that we have by now discovered many things and most importantly, passed this information on to the next generations through books in schools and stuff. It has been 2000 years since the fall of the ancient Egyptians. In terms of evolution, this is a very short time. We are identical to them. To sum it up:

Today we know more. We are not more intelligent.

Great stuff Bebi.

I don't necessarily think that we are more intelligent than the Egyptians, we just have more information.

yes, I believe you are right, they're technologies were different, but not lesser.

agreed, as it's been said by the great minds of this thread who have posted before me, it is merely the knowledge base that we start with, being as it is much larger we have that advantage going for us.

But remember, information does not imply wisdom...

agreed. but information certainly aids in the propegation of wisdom...

^^^
Absolutely agreed, but only if the receiver of info desires wisdom. Otherwise, it is just dangerous.

It implies knowledge...

What?

^^I concur wholeheartedly Rykster, few things are more dangerous than misused information

Glacies, ain't that a fact? We don't demonstrate wisdom, we demonstrate the power of knowledge. The HBs and skeptics alike can attest to that if we are honest. We have more information at hand now than ever in history, but where is the wisdom?

wisdom is in HOW the knowledge is used...

I don't think we are a particularly 'wise' people...

we continuously abuse the knowledge before any wisdom is applied...

right now, imo, the wisest of us all, are those who take their knowledge, their information, and just stay the heck out of the publics eye, forming wisdom away from informational biases, drawing conclusions in a socio-cultural vacuum, again, all my opinion, but it's the only way to stop their information from being misused, and forces those to search for it...again, just my two cents.
but failing that...i can't really say where the wisdom is...

It amazes me how many child prodigies and geniuses there are out there. It seems like more and more people are giving birth to little geniuses. I dont know if we are paying more attention to them, or maybe it is true that the brain is adapting itself.

Oh, yah. Imagine if the likes of Newton, Einstein and Edison did that. We would be eating poison mushrooms in caves. We wouldn't have invented the wheel or the fire. Fun fun fun...


There is a higher, growing population these days. Higher, growing population = higher, growing number of child geniuses.


How so?

I think we would have the wheel and fire. Those things were there before any of those inventors came about.



Yes but I think there is a greater ratio of geniuses to non-geniuses then ever before.

actually all three did do just that, took all of their knowledge and paid no attention to the world around them...thus being able to develop as the genius thinkers we remember...but you did read the last sentence...failing this hypothesis...i have no idea...yup, that's a disclaimer right there! haha. though you do raise a valid point.

We would not have the wheel and fire. If a caveman makes a wheel, he gains that knowledge. According to glacies, if he was "wise" he would go hide out of the public eye and never tell anyone. So no, we would not have the wheel. Or fire. Maby fire since it can occur naturally, but not the wheel.
About the ratio of baby geniuses: could it be because of the superior food and healthcare? Where did you get this information from?


Im not sure I quite understand you. Those three inventors did not dissapear with their information. They shared their information.

Um, just for the record, neither Einstein, Newton or Edison invented the wheel, or fire. Nor did they claim to.

I meant hide in a metaphorically speaking sense. i meant to distance themselves from biases around them, and develop their knowledge. and again I point to my disclaimer, if you don't agree with my one theory, choose the second one, which is "i have no clue"

Really? I'm shocked!
I didn't say they did. I said "the likes of" (i.e. inventors, scientists and stuff).
I should have been more specific.


I think all information with any proactive use should be shared.
I just don't know what to say about your theory, I don't think I quite understand what you mean.

we pollute the land and the water and the atmosphere...

we've known we need more economical/alternate fuel cars for decades and done little...

known the population is aging and spent the retirement money...

pay ten's of thousands of dollars per year for every murderer we keep alive...

support illegal's...

allow welfare dynastys...

neglect education...

allow late/full term abortions...

just a few

Just bustin stones Wombat, no hostility there!

don't worry, i don't understand it either...or anything else I do for that matter. but that's a story for another thread!

The first line is a lack of wisdom.
The secound is not true, we have been doing much.
The third line, if a fact, is a lack of wisdom.
The fourth line is a matter of opinion (btw its $15k a year/inmate and some companies use prison labour for HUGE profits).
The fith line is a matter of opinion
I dont know what a wellfare dynasty is, do you mind explaining?
The seventh line is a lack of wisdom.
The last line is a matter of opinion.

Your views are rather extreme. What is wrong with abortion? Do you expect us to kill all the murderers? What is wrong with immigrants?


Hostility? What are you talking about?

I'd say the second line is true. We've done too little too late and are only now realising just what an effect on the environment we've caused. Has anyone else heard of a phenomena called Global Dimming that has masked the effects of Global Warming? I caught a program about it the other night and it was sobering stuff. Apparantly things like the contrails of aeroplanes are masking the effects of Global Warming. There was a study done in the few days after 9/11 (the first time there was negligible air traffic) and just from those few days the climate altered. I'll try and find a link to it.

Edit: here it is http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/Glob...obaldimming.asp

The second line is not true. We have got rid of CFCs from aerosol cans, we have stopped releasing harmful fumes into the atmosphere from factories and we have reduced the fuel consumption of cars. We are just not able to make well working electric cars yet, so we don't, but we are working on it. Right now hybrid cars are the most efficient, combining electricity and gas into the same car. Also, some cars use gas and alcohol to run these days.

Ok, before newtons time or any of these inventors came about there was the wheel and fire. Duh. So how could there not be wheel and fire if they did not come? Thats like saying we wouldnt have the TV if an inventor in the year 3000 did not appear.

There may not be alot of technology that we have now, but we would have the wheel and fire.

Ok, for the last time, I was a bit vague, what I should have said was:

IF PEOPLE DID NOT TELL OTHERS WHAT THEY DISCOVER, WE WOULD NOT HAVE THE WHEEL OR THE FIRE.

If a man invents the wheel and does not tell anyone, noone will know about the wheel.

I know this, but you used examples such as Einstein and Newton. I thought you were saying that without them we wouldnt have the wheel or fire.