For anyone who thinks this is a new phenomenon look up "patent nostrums and quack remedies"
A fool and his money is soon parted, an expression in common usage since the 16th century at least. 🙂
A fool and his money is soon parted, an expression in common usage since the 16th century at least. 🙂
I recall a line within the book, "Terminal Man"...the sentence was a manifesto of the protagonist within describing the very core function of computers & their eventual future....paraphrasing here, "... we designed them to think." Given enough time, they will think for us & we will eventually lose our own abilities to think...as our machines will do all the thinking for us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
But are we collectively dumber than we use to be? Test scores say otherwise.No wonder we're collectively dumb because we're wasting our youth on stuff they don't need.
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I’m not so sure the tests referred to are well suited to tell us this. Some people use language like ‘book smart’ and ‘people smart’ and ‘smart in other ways’. I think most of us can recognise an intelligent person when we are talking with them but how well do we measure it. Also, as pointed out already, these tests are somewhat comparative and they maybe unsuitable for tracking changes in collective intelligence over time. I don’t know nearly enough about the validity of intelligence testing, but I feel plenty of caution is warranted.
Oh yeah they are. The student that my college prof buddy called out in class for playing on her phone the whole time (resulting in an HR/race incident) was making a failing grade. What good would even a 160 IQ do you if you fail your freshmen chemistry? THOSE scores matter, not the damn IQ test.But are we collectively dumber than we use to be? Test scores say otherwise.
That’s what happens when you don’t pay attention in class. And it’s starting early, and spreading like wildfire.
watching movies from various eras, listening to old-timey radio shows, reading books from various ages, anecdotally, I've seen the previous generations complain about the down fall in some area of the upcoming generations. I believe Pliny the Elder made comment about the generational moral decay of Rome. Yet, we're all still here. Some tells me we'll keep figuring things out or die off trying. Good times.
How is not paying attention in class a new thing?That’s what happens when you don’t pay attention in class. And it’s starting early, and spreading like wildfire.
Luckily besides tying a noose shoelaces are the only other thing I can tie. Never was any good with knots, that's why I don't go fishing....but can you tie your own shoelaces? 🤣
Tom
Not paying attention in class was not an option where I went to school.How is not paying attention in class a new thing?
You did that a few times to often in a couple of subjects you'd repeat the entire year and if that happens twice they'd move you to a 'lesser' school (we had streaming from age 12. If they moved you down from Grammar School you would not go to university.).
Nah. Were are just as blind in some areas as we ever were.Oh yeah they are
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06137-x
These days we have people who spend 1/3 of their working life span at schools. That seems a real waste to me. No wonder we're collectively dumb because we're wasting our youth on stuff they don't need.
Yeah. I was talking to my buddy last week. We went to college together, roommates and everything. We both studied electrical engineering.
He said he used almost nothing he learned at college in his career. I thought about it and realized I'd used very little of what I learned at college working for the man. Some jobs that require specialized degrees (like EE) can in reality be done by a monkey, I swear. Specialized knowledge required is very specific but becomes rote very fast. No college is required to learn a few tricks and do them every day for decades.
But when I was "unemployable' and started rolling my own, I found myself relearning all that stuff. I finally felt vindicated for all the effort I put in at school. I never used calculus, or Nyquist stability criteria, or a host of other topics, when working for the man. In fact, I never understood a lot of it until I had to do it myself with no help.
It seems like a colossal waste of talent. For 40 years The Man told me "you can't do that" and once I didn't have The Man telling me what I could and couldn't do, I found out I could do it and so much more. I don't understand the mentality, but I fell like I've wasted my life listening to evil corporate eggheads that "know better" than me. If I could go back in time I'd do so much more and thumb my nose at those evil people.
I bet it was actually. You can "pay attention" and not pay attention at all.Not paying attention in class was not an option where I went to school.
I paid attention is school as a way to stay awake. I also enjoy thinking and learning. It's seemed to work pretty well for me.
Tom
I sniff at the idea of IQ. It's really just a rating of how good you are at taking written tests. My IQ level tests out to be near moron (mid 80's), but I ended up being a successful electrical engineer, now retired and still enjoying electronics.The first of the "premium cable" manufacturer, remaining anonymous because them liken to suing everyone in sight...started about 1979, just about the same time as IQ rates started falling. Now, the powers that be insisted the IQ testing was fatally flawed, but that did not affect the results even using the "updated" versions of IQ testing. So, we went from simple speaker wiring to interconnects, thru "magic boxes" up & thru "magic pebbles" & all their wild claims. Very early on, straightforward double-blind tests ensued, discovering, "You can't hear an expensive speaker from a cheap one, you can't hear an expensive "super-speaker cable" from a cheap stretch of zip-cord, you can't hear the difference from a cheap $30 DAC from a $3500 DAC..."
From every corner we hear attempts to discredit double-blind tests, just like those trying to discredit the IQ testing ...& no, even concert violinists don't covet Stradivarius violins because they can't hear any differences. Even a collection of so-called wine-connoisseurs can't even decipher a red wine from a white wine. Double-blind testing strips away all pretensions large & small.
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Yeah but no.I bet it was actually. You can "pay attention" and not pay attention at all.
I paid attention is school as a way to stay awake. I also enjoy thinking and learning. It's seemed to work pretty well for me.
Tom
Your verbal participation during lessons counted for two thirds of your final result for that semester so in theory you could still fail any given subject even if you aced all the tests but of course you wouldn't ace any test if you didn't pay attention.
I have no idea what Canadian schools are like but compared to the UK at 16 we were between 2 and 3 years ahead of British pupils.
In Maths we started differential calculus at around 15 years of age. Also with my school qualification US universities would give me any Bachelor degree in 2 years instead of 4.
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Knowledge can be defined as what’s left after you forgot everything you learned in school.
I went through K-12 and the first four years of my university degree(s) in Denmark, so I can't comment on Canadian primary and secondary schooling either.
Tom
Tom
I went through the Mensa tests,scored above 160, never did bother to get membership, tests were mostly pattern matching.
Here in India we have different State Boards of Education, and a Central Board...standards vary.
I had a class mate in 10th grade, who flunked 3rd and 8th grade, so duffer was appropriate as a description for him.
He migrated to Louisiana, in the USA, in 1980, and claimed to have become a school topper there...he cannot be found on the internet, maybe he changed his name.
But we got the impression that American standards were lower than ours in school education.
But that is a side issue, we are seeing more and more passive intake of intelligence, and also worse eyesight, people are happy to be couch potatoes, and can they then exercise their minds if all they do is watch TV, and play with their phones?
As for cable mania, we can all give ideas based on our view of life, as to what can be done to convince people to give us stupid money and feel happy about it.
It has been some time since we saw a stupid cable thread now...new ideas welcome!
Titanium coated HDMI cables, anyone?
Or multiple twist with varying pitch multiple conductor cables for speakers?
And so on...
Here in India we have different State Boards of Education, and a Central Board...standards vary.
I had a class mate in 10th grade, who flunked 3rd and 8th grade, so duffer was appropriate as a description for him.
He migrated to Louisiana, in the USA, in 1980, and claimed to have become a school topper there...he cannot be found on the internet, maybe he changed his name.
But we got the impression that American standards were lower than ours in school education.
But that is a side issue, we are seeing more and more passive intake of intelligence, and also worse eyesight, people are happy to be couch potatoes, and can they then exercise their minds if all they do is watch TV, and play with their phones?
As for cable mania, we can all give ideas based on our view of life, as to what can be done to convince people to give us stupid money and feel happy about it.
It has been some time since we saw a stupid cable thread now...new ideas welcome!
Titanium coated HDMI cables, anyone?
Or multiple twist with varying pitch multiple conductor cables for speakers?
And so on...
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- Worldwide falling intelligence levels & the onset of "cable mania", coincidence?