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Human Intelligence Sharply Declining

futurism.com

Human Intelligence Sharply Declining

No, it's not just you — people really are, per a number of surveys, way less intelligent than they used to be.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20250316190341/https://futurism.com/neoscope/human-intelligence-declining-trends

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

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Human Intelligence Sharply Declining
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Human Intelligence Sharply Declining
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34 comments

    • Define community. I genuinely want to know because I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a community that wasn't on reference to online forums.

      • When you pay rent to your landlord and are exploited by your job to afford it... that is the community everyone thinks is so great.

        Dont worry about getting to know your neighbors. Rents going up end of your lease and you have to move yet again to find someplace you can afford. No point. But hey, the houses of the neighbors you never met increased in value. Thank you for your community service.

        We never were civilized. At least we stopped pretending.

      • What the fuck? Are you serious? You don’t know what community is outside of the internet?

        • ...Yeah? At least I don't think I do. English is my second language so maybe I'm missing some nuance here, but no I have never heard of a "community" IRL.

          A community to me is just members of something like an online forum or a subreddit or subscribers of a content creator. Though the last one is a stretch, since they don't talk to each other usually. I'm not that young either, I remember being on IRC back in the day and I'd call that a community.

          People I know IRL are disparate acquaintances and friends and friends of friends, none of them know each other or share anything in common or any desire to know anyone, I met them on dating apps mostly and through people I met on dating apps, so I don't think that's a "community".

          People at work are coworkers, prisoners of wage slavery assigned to the same cell so that's not it. Neighbours are just people forced to cohabit nearby due to finite amounts of land, you're usually either enemies with them or on friendly terms, but you wouldn't speak to them unless there was something you needed, so that's not community.

          Most of the time I hear "community" it's a dogwhistle meant to make something sound more polite than "people" so e.g. "LGBTQ community" - there is no such thing, it's just people, but no one would read articles saying "LGBTQ people fight for rights" because that sounds too sad, so they say "community" or e.g. "migrant community". It's a euphemism.

          • Interesting. Well, community is a common word lol

            It's usually used to refer, non-specifically, to people that live around you. You'll see it in places like "community gardens" or "community centers". The usage on the Internet is pretty recent, linguistically, obviously lol

            • See that's counter-intuitive to me because doesn't it usually imply some level of knowledge of the people or at least something you have in common?

              I don't know them, I've never seen any of them more than once, I've never spoken to or been spoken to by them anywhere I lived, because people IRL generally keep to themselves and just talking to random strangers is pretty weird all in all.

              With your usage of the word "community" in "community centre" i just figured it's an extremely old timey generic way to generically refer to a settlement, including cities, towns, residential areas/neighbourhoods, districts, zones, boroughs, areas and other localities that's fallen out of use.

              In that case I'm not sure how I'm meant to interpret @AnIndefiniteArticle's usage of the word, because I don't know how someone can destroy the social fabric of random collections of actual strangers on the street lol, there isn't any, they're just randoms on about their day.

              • ...doesn't it usually imply...something you have in common?

                Yes. That you live in the same area. You have the same elected representatives, you use the same public services, you shop at the same stores, you live with the same stakes. That's why people say you need to get involved in your community. Whether or not you acknowledge it, you're part of it

                Edit: to add, "community center" probably sounds old-fashioned to you, because of what they were talking about:

                it's hard to get anyone to be willing to be remotely friendly or willing to admit that they are destroying the social fabric of their own Communities.

                Getting rid of places where you can engage with your community has been part of this effort. Community centers are run by local governments, and are often one of the first things conservatives try to cut

                • That you live in the same area.

                  But that' happenstance. Literally thousands of randoms live in the same area. I've never seen the same person twice, and I'm sure they want to be left alone. Not really enough to start a conversation.

                  You have the same elected representatives

                  Pretty sure an average person has no idea who that is or what that means. Hell, I don't know who that is for my area from a few months ago.

                  you shop at the same stores

                  That's a bit of an assumption.

                  you live with the same stakes

                  I'm not even sure what you mean by that. We have almost nothing in common in our actual lives apart from living in the same city and area. Like, moving cities doesn't substantially change anything about your life, you still do the things you do, work the job you work, know the people you know, etc etc.

                  People don't just strike up conversations with other people because they live in the same apartment block.

                  That's why people say you need to get involved in your community.

                  I get that - what I don't understand is how. And to answer that first I need to find this "community".

                  You say it's not a website, but the only time I've ever seen anyone discuss something relevant to a local area was a Facebook community for that city, which was mostly boomers whining about gormless buskers in the suburbs or old people posting black and white photographs saying they are looking for someone they saw in a bar hundreds of miles away 40 years ago, like some kind of strange ARG.

                  Whether or not you acknowledge it, you're part of it

                  I can acknowledge it all I want, it doesn't matter if most other people aren't aware of this supposed community we share, or of other people in general.

                  I'm also a part of the cosmos but I don't think I've ever spoken to a Martian either.

                  Idk again on paper you say things that make sense and I could picture a fictional Lynchian village where neighbours talk to each other and greet each other and maybe even discuss their elected representatives or whatever if they're tight-knit, but this just doesn't match anything even close to my lived reality.

                  I do appreciate the explanation though, thanks.

                  • If your community is poorly connected, help out! Host a block party, set up a book swap, there's all kinds of options. That's a big focus of our local 50501 community in Michigan: restoring the bonds that have been worn away over the years by capitalists.

                    I strongly disagree with the majority of your last post though. It sounds like you're determined to close your eyes and ears to the people around you

                    • No, I'm not determined on anything you projecting fool, I am saying that based on your definitions of community and my lived experience, it is others who are determined to close their eyes and ears from me and from each other.

                      And no, I'm not gonna go up to literal strangers that have never spoken to me or each other ever nor shown any signs of wanting to do so and tell them about hosting some sort of unsanctioned "party" because some guy said this will be good, or something, on the internet - a place where no one lies.

                      This doesn't make me determined to "close my eyes and ears to those around" me, not acting based on the unprovable words of one guy, referencing something I only ever hear about on the internet about something that suspiciously doesn't seem to leave any traces of existing IRL makes me fucking sane.

                      So either we live in completely different realities, which yeah - I don't live in America, or you are lying, or I am lying, or we're not understanding each other.

                      Last time a different guy on the internet tried to explain this and they just kept claiming they built a local community with their neighbours, skipping over how they managed to even get along, he said he would show up to their neighbours to mow their lawn and that that is going to accomplish something or other, which is insane because if someone shows up to your door and asks to do your chores for free - most people would call the cops because that shit is creepy and unusual as hell and literally no one does that.

                      Hell - even knocking on neighbours doors within the same apartment block without a reason is at least disturbing the peace and nuisance as well, they'd be well within their rights to call the cops, no one wants marketing shit, especially if it's for some vague "community" shit. They're gonna think I'm trying to sell them a pyramid scheme.

                      You say "there's a bit focus here on" and I dont understand what you mean, do you mean like by the government? Or are you saying regular people are somehow contributing? If so, how? And how are they organized? Like via one of those Facebook groups?

                      Here, boomers use them to harass buskers and Starbucks workers deemed "gormless".

                      • 50501 is a national protest movement here in the US. There is an individual chapter for every state. The chapter for my state has a ton of people involved in my city, and one of the things we're doing is fostering community through events like block parties.

                        Block parties are not "unsanctioned" lol

                        I don't know if they're a thing in other countries, but here in the US, it's become an official type of event. We work with the city, and close down streets to set up on the pavement, temporarily converting the road into a social space for everyone around. Local businesses come and do stalls, food trucks set up, local musicians perform, it's great!

34 comments