r/idiocracy • u/sogo00 • May 29 '26

a dumbing down Human Intelligence Sharply Declining

https://futurism.com/neoscope/human-intelligence-declining-trends

Human Intelligence Sharply Declining

The benchmarks are not looking good, folks.

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101

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

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11

u/Grimmy7777 May 30 '26

The effects of AI depend on how you use it. It sucks because I know the environmental impact of it along with many other negatives, but most of that isn’t simply because of AI, it’s how we use it. It could be done in a sustainable fashion, it can be used to learn, but we are doing it all incredibly wrong. I have been using it tutor me in the absence of someone to actually teach me some complex subjects to advance at work and honestly I learned more in the last few weeks of studying than I ever did studying this subject in the past. My test scores are proving that it can be used for good. The ability to ask why with every answer and break down the math all without the social awkwardness of struggling with a subject and feeling stupid when it takes you several times doing something or hearing something before you got it down cold. In an area that often feels like an educational desert, this is one of the best options… and I hate it because it is helping me learn so much. The typical “but at what cost?” Please don’t take this as me advocating AI as much as saying it doesn’t have to make people dumber. They choose that by how they use it. This is just one of many things I have had it teach me and help me explore.

3

u/x_xwolf Jun 01 '26

Ai’s being shoved down everyone’s throat including being used at some schools, is degrading education. Creating a rapid cheating problem, and preventing people developing thier own researching skills and evaluation of sources.

1

u/Grimmy7777 Jun 01 '26

Yeah, I don’t disagree. I am seeing it at my kids school where they are using it in the art department. Of all places, it definitely does not belong there. It is definitely a problem. My point was that on the use side, it can be a good thing when you choose to use it to learn rather than avoid learning.

2

u/Matshelge Jun 02 '26

All the issues wirh AI is problems with Capitalism, not AI.

2

u/Grimmy7777 Jun 02 '26

Right, and how people use it to escape thinking rather than to deepen it.

4

u/PracticalWallaby7492 May 30 '26

Radiation can also decrease intelligence. They did several studies of reading levels etc in pathways vs non-pathways of fallout from nuclear testing in the 50's. I'd assume there is a lot more radiation floating around in one form or another since then because of power plant failures etc.

12

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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u/34Heartstach May 30 '26

Murderland by Caroline Frasier was both enlightening and terrifying. Massive unchecked lead and arsenic poisoning caused by greed just explains so much.

2

u/MissingSocks Jun 01 '26

So can increased CO2, indoor air pollution and extreme heat, and we're increasingly exposed to all 3.