9gag?

The younger generation still has hope, even if I do know some... peculiar individuals.

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Judging from the poll responses, it's a case of ignorance vs. actual knowledge with the ignorant encompassing the masses.

How anyone with any rational thought can choose "Yes" here is beyond me. In Einstein's day it took a genius to perform Calculus - now High School seniors have the ability. We're always expanding and advancing our knowledge at a faster rate, IQ exams modified yearly, expansion of technology degrees (degrees in general really), etc.

"After uncovering one of the most intriguing mysteries surrounding intelligence research — that each generation has significantly higher I.Q. scores than the previous one" [Flynn on the past 50 years]

Source

If so I blame capitalism. In order to make money people need to be stupid enough to buy your products. So once they do, don't challenge them to become smarter or you'll lose business.

In 1871, 90% of english speaking Canadian men were able to read and write ...

Even without an available public education system the settlers in Canada valued education and taught their children reading, writing, arithmetic and history in their homes. The un-educated under-class really existed hundreds of years before that.

I find it stupid that people still buy into Social Darwinism, especially after the holocaust.

Capitalism has existed since the origins of humanity when the first person thought to trade one of his possessions for the possession of another.

Even large corporations are nothing new.

You're confusing availability of knowledge with intelligence, which is the ability to interpret and organise that knowledge.

In Einstein's day mathematics undergraduates were taught the same calculus as today, and I can pull up my university's exam papers to prove it.

IQ is a flawed metric of intelligence and is not taken seriously any more, not least because it is possible to train yourself to become much better at IQ tests if you know the format, which a lot more people do now. Studies which show an increase are the flawed same as the ones that show race or gender disparity.

Intelligence is both genetic and environmental, there is no reason to suppose it is somehow equalised genetically when every other similar human trait is not. If low intelligence was being selected for then the first post would be true, but it is nowhere near as bad as that because there remains selection pressure to be more intelligent and the Western countries for which this may be true do not make up the majority. It is not yet something to be concerned about vs. actually educating people to reach their full potential.

This is tne of the most misinformed threads on VGChartz I can remember.

Fair in regards to education/knowledge although these are paramount to intelligence.

Complete unfair in regards to IQ examination. How many people actually practice IQ exams? I would argue it's in the neighborhood of 0.0001%. The standard IQ of the masses increases generation over generation - that has absolutely nothing to do with training.

People that state "IQ is a flawed metric" tend to be those lacking in such a metric. "Not taken seriously anymore" - well, MENSA certainly takes it seriously and last I checked, there's still a $1 Million MacArthur Fellows ("Genius Grant").

Misinformation on your part. No doubt about it.

They don't practice IQ exams, but they do practice more of the reasoning skills one needs to pass them by virtue of average school leaving age being much later.

IQ is not worthless but it is not a good general measure of intelligence, and there will never be one.

Mensa is an organisation of people who want to be special flowers with their super high point scores. I see it the same as Xbox Achievements. If it makes you happy then great but it doesn't mean anything.

The other thing you mentioned has nothing to do with IQ? Even if it did, how does that constitute official or scientific recognition of IQ, which is what I'm looking for here? Why is there no decent standardisation of IQ if it is so important, general and repeatable?

No, there is no conclusive evidence that the population's (edit: intelligence) as measured is rising. There are too many sources of error to be certain of this, and enough doubt in what literature there is for it to not be a fact yet.

OMG THERE'S AN ANT ON YOUR SIG!!!