Is pampered humanity getting steadily less intelligent? | Ian Sample | Science | guardian.co.uk
While a bit of a frivolous topic really (intelligence may matter less than happiness! :-), what is interesting is some quantiative insight into genes counts for a trait, and rate of mutation :
"The scientist draws on recent studies to estimate a figure for the number of genes that play a role in human intellectual ability, and the number of new mutations that harm those genes each generation. He settles on a suite of 2,000 to 5,000 genes as the basis for human intelligence, and calculates that among those, each of us carries two or more mutations that arose in the past 3,000 years, or 120 generations."
As an aside thought - if the ideas of the west (born in Greece) are responsible for the overall improvement which eased selection pressures, and resulted in a general 'dumbing down' - then there might be an irony in the question as to whether it is better to be a pig satisfied, or Socrates dissatisfied. The itching Socrates may have helped give rise to a comfy world for us pigs :-)
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