Declining Intelligence: Why We're Getting Dumber

Our brains have become like household appliances . Technology has improved performance, efficiency, and results, thus allowing, on the one hand, to push for new consumption and, on the other, to increase prices. But the quality of appliances, measured by their durability, is declining. As if this were a factor of little relevance and irrelevance.

INTELLIGENCE

Much the same thing is happening with intelligence. Among the things that are diminishing in the vortex of modernity , where the space for asking questions is increasingly limited, is intelligence itself. Incredible but true: even as the tools for information, knowledge, and relationships continue to increase exponentially, thanks precisely to the opportunities afforded by technological progress, our IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is decreasing.

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DECREASING INTELLIGENCE

We're getting dumber . Damn less intelligent, and not by a little. Scientists are warning us: throughout the twentieth century, we were accustomed to a constant progression of our IQ. It was called the " Flynn effect ," named after Philosophy professor James Flynn (University of Otago, New Zealand), who very punctually conducted studies and tests on IQ (Intelligence Quotient) in industrialized countries.

Flynn, as long as he lived, always reassured us. Our intelligence has grown uninterrupted, at around 0,3 percent per year, which is no small feat, and considering the accelerating progress of technology and electronic devices, everything pointed to a bright future for our brains.

INTELLIGENCE IN DECLINE

In reality, things are going in exactly the opposite direction. According to a recent study by Brent Bratsberg and Ole Rogeberg of the Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Studies in Norway, a reverse progression began in 1975. It has never stopped. So much so that today we find ourselves with a 7-point drop in our IQ compared to half a century ago—a true collapse.

Let's say right away that the research's reliability is beyond question, and its results have been published in full in the journal Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirming its seriousness. The tests were conducted by a team of Norwegian scientists over a very long period of time, approximately 40 years, on 730 people, using the analyses performed annually on 18- and 19-year-old Norwegians who begin compulsory military service in the Northern European country. On the other hand, similar studies in England, the United States, and Germany have led to the same conclusion: the "Flynn effect" has run its course, and we must deal with a more stupid , and therefore also more dangerous, humanity.

IGNORANCE MAKES YOU STUPID

The possible answers to the hundred-knife question, "Why is our intelligence declining?", remain open. Here we enter the realm of hypotheses, some of which are quite fascinating. The first concerns the demographic curve: intelligent people have fewer children, resulting in fewer offspring, while stupid people outnumber them because they reproduce more rapidly. This equation is well-known to older people, who no doubt recall an old proverb: "The mothers of fools are always pregnant."

Aside from genetic material, which can still have a certain impact on the "fall of reason," there are also some environmental factors that also play a role. Lifestyles , despite dizzying technological progress, have often worsened in the industrialized world. For example, a poor diet (with little fish and therefore few unsaturated fatty acids that support the development of the nervous system), lack of exercise, and an unhealthy environment are all factors that contribute to lowering IQ . So too is lack of sleep, a veritable epidemic in more developed societies.

According to Stanford University professor Gerald Crabtee , we've reached a very dangerous point in the waste of our intelligence: we no longer consider it necessary, and we're convinced we can do without it. Crabtee writes: "I'm willing to bet that if an average citizen of Athena from 1.000 BC were to appear among us, he or she would be considered the liveliest and most brilliant mind among our friends and colleagues."

FLYNN EFFECT AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

HOW NOT TO WASTE INTELLIGENCE

Finally, there is a third cause, which is being investigated more thoroughly, which we can perhaps consider the most interesting, from the perspective of the potential waste that humans, even unconsciously, can consume. Intelligence, or the ability to observe, analyze, and adapt our behavior to any circumstance and any change, is not static. The brain is not inherited from parent to child, even if there is a significant genetic component. You can easily observe this with a mini field test: how many stupid children of intelligent parents do we know? Certainly not a few.

For its growth, intelligence also requires, and perhaps most importantly, culture, knowledge, and sharing . These are all factors in human growth that are gradual, long-term, and not one-off. These factors are now being severely challenged by the proliferation of computers , with all their implications, and by a culture increasingly dependent on the web, and therefore hasty, superficial, incomplete, and unstable. A culture tailored to eliminate conversation, another essential element for the growth of intelligence. Any conversation , even the lightest and most seemingly banal: as long as it is real, looking the interlocutors in the eye, and not virtual, consisting only of tweets and insults online.

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HOW TO GROW YOUR BRAIN AND MEMORY WITH NATURAL PRODUCTS 

• Do you want to create? Dream. It's time to cleanse your brain and generate better intuitions.
• Too much time in the car, and we become less intelligent. We waste brains as well as time.
• The importance of slowness: if we are too fast, the brain does not function well.