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Evolution doesn't necessarily reward intelligence. It rewards those who survive and reproduce.
Evolution is not in the business of rewarding. Evolution is not a conscious mind making decisions to reward certain behaviors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bawac34618
This is one reason I scoff sometimes at futurists who believe the future is going to be something out of science fiction and a utopia where we can control everything, live forever, and transfer our consciousness to machines.
LOL at futurists!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by bawac34618
I believe humanity has reached peak intelligence. What do you think?
No I don't think it has. Intelligence is certainly tied to our consciousness. Consciousness is continuously evolving and with that comes greater intelligence.
The problem is, we have also reached peak consciousness, some of us that is. And it is also a rather limited parameter. We are animals and there is only so much consciousness humans can achieve, due to their biological/genetic limits. I don't believe in the esoteric position on consciousness.
That is also the problem with the thread question. Humans are not all at the same level regarding intelligence. Intelligence also depends on schooling, education in general, motivation, tasks etc.
Genetically/biologically modern humans are basically the same, though, and at the same level as people 10k years ago. But today many of us are operating close to the limit of their potential, leading to stress, burnout...
Or there are so many of them they are no longer special
Or maybe it has to do with the fact that there is only so much to discover. Most of it has already been discovered. There are no new laws of physics etc.
Like with species in the world. 300 years ago people were discovering new species all the time, now that rarely happens because there are only so many species and most of them are already known.
Most of today's scientists would not put themselves in same league as Newton or Einstein. It's true that many things have already been discovered. But there is still room for the kind of original thinking that can change the world.
Also the mystery of black holes, dark energy, dark matter, origin of the Big Bang, unified equation, etc. are waiting to be solved. Though these days it takes a team of people to work on things.
My personal belief is that the world 1000 years from now will closely resemble the world as it was 1000 years ago, complete with large numbers of humans killing each other in religious wars.
Why do I think so? Simple: enlightened secular societies are dying out due to low birth rates, and religious societies are growing in population. Ignorance is bliss and religion is excellent at keeping people ignorant, happy, and making babies. The promise of a "pie in the sky when you die" is very powerful.
Most people today wouldn't know how to do that. It goes to show that human intelligence as such has not really increased since the stone age. We just accumulate and share knowledge. If that were all gone for some catastrophic reason, we would probably be like stone-age people again.
Or there are so many of them they are no longer special
Or maybe it has to do with the fact that there is only so much to discover. Most of it has already been discovered. There are no new laws of physics etc.
Like with species in the world. 300 years ago people were discovering new species all the time, now that rarely happens because there are only so many species and most of them are already known.
I think it has to do with the fact that overall, humans today, don't face the survival challenges that they did in the past.
At first, intelligence was most likely a major factor in our survival and reproductive probability, thus it increased rapidly, but that is not the case anymore. Over time, we have invented many things that replace the need for intelligence. In fact we are seeing a trend where people lack the ability to discern what is true from what is not true. We see many who don't understand science and who stand in denial of it...this leads to a complete dismantling of an informed democracy.
As for our species, I believe that birth is a limitation-you can make a baby's head only so large before birth becomes unworkable.
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