Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id HAA17296 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 19 Aug 2001 07:09:18 +0100 From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 01:12:09 -0500 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Gene-Meme Co-evolution in Reverse? Message-ID: <3B7F1269.23737.427C9D@localhost> In-reply-to: <998141696.3b7e6f0022b82@rugth1.phys.rug.nl> References: <3B7DABCC.14C60A8A@pacbell.net> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 18 Aug 2001, at 15:34, Philip Jonkers wrote:
> Many thanks Bill for this wonderful feedback.
> If I understand it correctly your posting suggests that intelligence
> shows a specializing trend. Maybe our culture is growing to such an
> extent that selecting only certain elements to learn becomes desirable
> and natural. After all, how many kids are good in math and
> simultaneously get their way around on the internet?
>
> I'll dig deeper into the subject by consulting to your internet
> reference (and others?). As Joe correctly mentioned, genetic evolution
> is a very gradual process indeed. Consider the possibility that
> intelligence changes might go unnoticed within several generations.
> You and I may not live to see whether the gene-meme co-evolution
> actually is shifted in reverse or not.
>
> Philip.
>
> Quoting Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net>:
>
> > Dear Joe,
> >
> > From
> >
> http://www.beyond-the-illusion.com/files/New-Files/200101/why_kids_are
> _smarter_than_you.txt > > << > "The rising-IQ trend is often called
> the Flynn Effect after New > Zealand sociologist James Flynn, who
> first noticed the phenomenon > in the 1980s. Since 1984, Dr. Flynn has
> published a series of > papers showing that IQs in at least 13
> developed countries have > gained five to 25 points in recent decades.
> > > He managed to find what others had missed because he did not look
> > at average IQ scores, which rank how people compare with each >
> other at a certain point. > > Instead, Dr. Flynn looked at the number
> of questions people > answered correctly on the intelligence tests
> over the years and > found everyone from school children to soldiers
> was scoring > progressively better.Interestingly, Dr. Flynn does not >
> necessarily believe the Flynn Effect points to a rise in >
> intelligence. > > "If people, children, were really becoming smarter,
> teachers > would be saying, 'My gosh I can't believe how fast kids
> learn > today,' and they are not saying that," he said in an interview
> > this week. > > "If people were really getting as smart as the test
> scores > suggest, we should be blinded by brilliance."He suggests that
> the > rising-IQ trend tells us more about what society demands of >
> people's mental abilities than about their actual intelligence > level
> because the gains have been in very specific skills. > >> > > So the
> data is misreported. IQ scores have not been rising. And thus > IQ, >
> whatever the term may mean, if anything, has not been rising. What has
> > been increasing is specific knowledge, both declarative and >
> procedural. > So people today would have scored higher on previous IQ
> tests. The > Flynn > Effect illustrates the cultural relativity of IQ
> tests, reflecting > cultural change over time. > > Best, > > Bill > >
> Bill > >
>
It could also, in addition, mean that our complex technological
society and culture demands of us that we actualize a higher
percentage of our native logicomathematical, visuospatial, and
linguistic potentials than in previous times.
>
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> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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