Scientists have been reporting a "reverse Flynn effect" as of recently -- a gradual decrease in average IQ. There are many possible causes (a lot of them benign), but new environmental factors are clearly a big suspect.
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One possible cause for the Flynn effect (=continuous increase in average IQ during the 2nd half of the 20th century): reduced exposure to lead, especially during childhood. Lead has been a major cognitive suppressant for a large fraction of the population.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24853978
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I just think it's easier to learn a lot and earlier in life. Imagine how much effort & time someone would need 20 years ago to understand a neuronal network. I can now easily build up on top of that starting from cero in my forties reading your book. That applies to everything.
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I think you mistake intelligence for knowledge, although I can imagine that there may be inflection points where intelligence arises from knowledge, probably via packeting where thinking becomes more efficient by packaging ideas into smaller and more succinct bundles.
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The timing seems completely wrong though. Average Italian-American and Polish-American in the 1920s was around 80. They were children long before peak lead. Far better theories have been put forward by Sowell and Pinker.
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Voir aussi les hypothèses sur le saturnisme, cause de la chute de l'empire romain.
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@mattyglesias talks about lead a lot but only the scary parts, I hadn't heard of the Flynn effect. From what he says though, I'd imagine lead is a huge factor...Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Have to be careful with correlation and causation, my man. Sometimes people may find exactly what they want to look for in the data.
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It is all about fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence, the development of both is not the same as before.
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Effective and affordable Birth control?
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