-
What Are the Risks of Syria Involvement?
May 23, 2013 | 25 comments
-
Pray and Grow Rich
May 16, 2013 | 68 comments
-
Ruthie’s Way
May 2, 2013 | 6 comments
-
A Free and Indivisible Union
April 25, 2013 | 70 comments
-
Revoke Obama’s Peace Prize
April 18, 2013 | 80 comments
The Nation's Pulse
The Case of the Missing Tennis Ball
Or how our brains are shrinking.
The notion that humans are growing increasingly dumb has been around for millennia. Socrates, in his Unapologia, noted how his fellow Athenians didn’t know their “arse from an urn.” And Desiderius Erasmus was equally appalled by the ignorance of his Dutch neighbors. Not only were they all going to hell, he said, but they would probably get lost along the way.
I’ve been saying the same thing to my lovely wife for years, but she has always dismissed my thoughts as more examples of my celebrated misanthropy. Now I can wave a new study in her face and say, “Ha!”
That is, I can once I figure out how to download the pdf. And, apparently, you have to be some kind of Einstein to print the damn thing.
The news might seem like a no-brainer, but some folks are skeptical. “How do researchers really know we’re getting dumber?” they stupidly ask. According to this article in Discover, over the past 20,000 years human males have lost a chunk of brain roughly the size of a tennis ball. (I would have thought a golf ball, since that’s the sort of thing we tend to lose most often, but I digress.) This will not be news to women, who have been saying the same thing for roughly 40,000 years. But before you gals get all smug, the same research says women have lost about the same size chunk o’ brain. And with each passing millennium, that tennis ball is starting to look more and more like a tennis racket.
It makes sense. Anecdotal evidence of our incredible shrinking brains is all around us.
SIGNS THAT WE ARE GETTING DUMBER:
• The Dallas man who recently tried to cash a forged check for 360 BILLION DOLLARS.
• Last year’s public school test scores.
• This year’s public school test scores.
• Warning labels on containers of rat poison: “Harmful if swallowed.”
• The fact that we are even talking about Jersey Shore’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.
• The fact that we allow Oprah to choose the books we read.
• Computer scientists create breakthrough technology and we use it to keep tabs on the Kardashians.
WE USED TO THINK evolution was making us smarter. Mother Nature was supposed to thin the herd of dummies, or, more accurately, the dummies would take care of themselves, usually while engaged in some dubious activity that involved a bungee cord. You remember all those 1960s sci-fi films where the people of the future had these ginormous brains that made their heads look like environmentally unfriendly incandescent light bulbs? (Speaking of dumb, didn’t the filmmakers realize that you’d need thicker, weightlifter necks to support those massive brains?) Anyway, the idea was that we’d evolve bigger brains, much like we’ve evolved bigger butts and thighs. Instead, our brains have been shrinking since the Stone Age. But just because we’ll all be pinheads in a couple thousand years, doesn’t mean all hope is lost.
Or maybe it does.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (59) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Christopher Orlet
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/01/13/case-missing-tennis-ball
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Eugenic Abortion 2.0
- A Nation on the Edge
- Downton’s Class System — and Ours
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.13.11 @ 6:54AM
To your list add those who thought Obama made a great speech last night.
R Tyson| 1.13.11 @ 8:08AM
To your list add the name of every reader who posts stupid comments like the one above by Bill Hussein O'Stalin (a dumb moniker, by the way).
R Tyson makes stupid comments| 1.13.11 @ 11:36AM
To your list add every poster like R Tyson
Diego Sierra| 1.13.11 @ 3:20PM
Add me to the list.
Taterblade| 1.13.11 @ 5:53PM
LOLZ
Isn't it interesting that in tennis, when you have nothing, you have love?
UFO UFOS| 3.2.12 @ 4:36AM
Add me to the list.UFO
richard ryan| 1.13.11 @ 8:47AM
For a good laugh (or cry) about the dumbing down of America, check out Mike Judge's opening scene from "Idiocracy". Satirical but so damn true:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSROlfR7WTo
Sadie| 1.13.11 @ 1:05PM
Thanks for the link. A perfect companion piece to the article and some politicians.
Occam's Tool| 1.14.11 @ 1:04AM
Dear Richard:
do not forget to read "the Marching Morons," the CM Kornbluth story that Mike Judge did not mention he ripped off.
Jacob McCandles| 1.13.11 @ 9:43AM
Captain Teleprompter strikes again. He's the political version of Milli Vanilli. It's garbage, and it isn't even his garbage.
Ned| 1.13.11 @ 12:04PM
But he's IMPROVING! This time it wasn't vile, anti-American garbage!!!
Fredlike| 1.13.11 @ 7:20AM
I find it certainly feasible that man has been slowly declining in intellectual powers for a long time. What compensates for this is more people and better nutrition. There are probably more smart people now than ever, because people eat better and there are just a lot more people. The flip side is the average Joe or Jane is not as smart and there are a lot more dumb people as well. De-evolution at work.
LiveFreeOrDie| 1.13.11 @ 7:02PM
People are actually eating less healthier than any other time period in our country. Some people's diet is 100% processed junk with little nutritional value. Hot pockets, big macs and soda pop are the norm. Fresh fruits and vegetables not so much.
I figure idiots breed 10:1 compared to everyone else. Highly intelligent people breed 1:10 compared to everyone else. Over a few generations and the idiot/intelligent ratio skyrockets in orders of magnitude. That's my theory anyway. I don't put a lot of stock in it but it sure would explain the rise in liberalism.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 1.13.11 @ 7:24AM
Misanthropy: a dislike of humankind. I love that word, actually it's my middle-name (no it's not, but it should be)!!
"Not only were they all going to hell, he said, but they would probably get lost along the way", or like my Brother used to say, I think we're lost, but we're making great time (and we were).
So maybe the future of mankind is going to be like having Alzheimer's Disease (which I'm pretty sure, I'm in the early stages of myself), collectively as a species we'll just slowly lose our reasoning, abilities, and responsibilities, and revert back to a childlike state. Or maybe we're there already, umm, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, is the Jersey Shore on tonight?
Oh yeah, don't forget that Coffee's hot if spilled!! How do I know that? I just spilled hot coffee on myself, duh!!
Appleby| 1.13.11 @ 7:27AM
A classical education was never designed to get you a job, any more than a University was designed to be a vocational school.
A classical education is designed to fit you for life -- to make it possible for you to sit down in any company and have a civilized conversation with a bedrock of knowledge that can be referenced without explanation.
Those who have studied only math and science and journalism and political science -- especially things that are superseded by the rapid march of time, before they get out of university -- have to have that bedrock of axiomatic understandings explained to them before they can join the conversation at all, and in their frustration they brand those who already know those things *Stupid* and go back to talking about Jersey Shore.
In 1992 I attended a music camp for a week to enjoy the learning and performance of two very different Latin masses: the Haydn Harmoniemesse and the Durufle Requiem. Although the group was a select one, many of us were surprised that the post Vatican II crowd had to be taught what a Latin Mass actually IS, before they could grasp in even a tenuous fashion why the Harmoniemesse is funny. That was when I began to understand that even allegedly educated people had lost a vital thread of the conversation that a classical education was designed to use to stitch the world together.
You cannot build a house if you do not have all the components. And if your education was in fact focused on getting you a job, your house has holes in it.
Tony in Central PA| 1.13.11 @ 8:01PM
American universities began relinquishing their historical reason for existing by the 1960's. They have increasingly represented centers for ideology over ideas, indoctrination over education. The only parts of the university to escape this have been the hard sciences, but they haven't been unscathed.
Debra| 1.18.11 @ 6:57AM
Education for a job vs being educated as a human being/conversation. Wonderfully put. My theory on the shrinking brain is that man is also shrinking. We are being honed as we orbit with the gravity and propulsion we can't even feel. I like science and I like the future. I believe our brain is being honed and the part left, in time will be the part where we won't have to use our bodies to communicate. I have always said the education should first teach a person how to be a human being. But who would do that first. So we have to learn as we go along and unfortunately we got off on the wrong path. We are coming back though. Too bad we won't live to see it.
Brat Magursky| 1.13.11 @ 8:25AM
And always remember that trial lawyers have 2 career paths to choose from beside law, drafting laws (i.e. politician) or applying laws (i.e judge) either way the Lawyer will always find ways to line their pockets and those of their lawyer buddies at the expense of the rest of us until we collectively decide we have had enough and hold them in check. Why is it so hard to understand that we all pay attorney fees thru the inflated costs of goods and services.We need some downsizing at the big law firm of H H & G (hubris hypocrisy and greed). An old retired doctor is called doctor an old retired lawyer is called "Your Honor"!
wbheff| 1.27.11 @ 11:08AM
Years ago Peter Cook performed a comedy sketch in which he explained that, although he was a coal miner, he would have preferred to be a judge. I don't remember all of it, but I do remember the last part. "And finally, as a miner, when you're too old and tired and stupid to work, they throw you out, but it's the exact opposite with the judges."
YeloStalyn| 1.13.11 @ 9:37AM
I have often wondered the "why" of everyone around me being "stupid."
I like to think I'm not, but who knows. I still ponder the "why" and have an idea...
It's very similar to why Americans are generally lazy (as well as suffering from the increased stupidity shared by human kind). We have succeeded in being smart and industrious to a point where we have set up systems and technologies that allow us to forgo the basics and just "ride along" to success at the task before us.
Simple example? Some one with a pen and paper was smart enough to build a calculator. Now, kids in HS can't add 2+2 without their best friend Casio. We got so smart we made ourself dumb. And lazy... like the movie Wall-E.
And for those who haven't seen Mike Judge's movie "Idiocracy"... it is a SPOT ON movie (and hilarious to boot).
Coal Miner's Son| 1.13.11 @ 9:42AM
We're all getting dumber, fatter, and lazier. If evolution holds true I'd say in a few million years our descendants will all resemble Jabba the Hut.
Bob Miller| 1.13.11 @ 10:15AM
Maybe the brain matter is changing because of disuse or misuse.
Paul Kotik| 1.13.11 @ 10:22AM
I figure we're getting dumber because we're social animals. We keep dummies alive because they're our kin and kind, and they reproduce. Our herd doesn't get culled like those of individualistic critters. It's inevitable that our individuals get less fit as our cooperation becomes more intricate and tightly coupled. Oh,well. Teleology, baby.
MoeBlotz| 1.13.11 @ 10:43AM
Since the introduction of brewing in Mesopotamia circa 4,000 BC,man has been killing off the useless brain cells that serve no function by drinking beer. As brewing methods have improved over the centuries,the people who produced the best beer have thrived. Look at how backward the fertile crescent countries are today. They should have carried on making beer.
Richard Baker| 1.13.11 @ 11:05AM
MoeBlotz:
"Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." Or, how about, " God made beer because he loves us and wants us to be happy." Heard these somewhere.
Amber Lamps| 1.13.11 @ 11:28AM
Read something that struck me, not sure now where I read it, something to the tune of, "Think of the average person. Then realize that half the people are dumber than that." I find myself thinking of that often as I am in the grocery store, or reading comments on Yahoo...
It is funny, though, how we all are just SURE we're on the upper end of the half...
Debra| 1.19.11 @ 3:08AM
Hey, you have a great point. I have always said it takes all of us to make the world go round. If we don't hae dumb people we can't have smart people and there is always someone in front of youa as well as behind you. Where you choose to be is in your choosing. It is all up to us as to what our life will be. That is after a lot of bad choices.
Have a lovely day
Bill| 1.13.11 @ 11:42AM
Women losing a tennis-ball size of brain tissue helps explain why feminists can view women going to work, having promiscuous sex even though their physical makeup guarantees single motherhood if they have a child, and having no husband around to take up some of the slack, is liberation.
Appleby| 1.13.11 @ 11:55AM
Losing a tennis-ball sized portion of the brain explains why men who weigh 300 lb. think women find them attractive in Speedos.
Or that today's woman still believes any man is better than no man...and that it's perfectly okay to leave a bar with a man if all you know about him is his first name and his astrological sign.
Or why Atlanta has 4 million residents and 10 snowplows--two of which crashed into each other last night.
Bill| 1.13.11 @ 3:18PM
There it is.
Petronius| 1.13.11 @ 11:44AM
Fun time all
The brain cell count being down and out and out to lunch is pro forma. The only improvement, which should have been noted by Mr. Orlet, both of us living down by the Gravois under the Anheuser Busch, is that with that family having hit the bricks we no longer have to watch a computer enhanced clydesdale fart during the playoffs.
Today individual excellence has become an object of derision. The Levelers control our institutions which command all be the same. And everything being political, showing off is right out if not of a Simpsonic nature. The charlatan is adored and the man of integrity despised in his turn.
A fortnight ago somebody posted that the Culture War is over and the assholes won. While true for the most part, I'll share a foxhole with Chris and keep slugging. The fortress of ignorance seems impregnable. The effect of this upon our polity lends credence to these words from the Spectator of London, 15 July, 2000. "British politicians have long had to conceal both their high intelligence, if they possessed it, and their cultural interests, if they had any."
Our urban politicians can be experts of the former.
They won't dare admit that they prefer babies be aborted so that they won't be obliged to kiss them. And they hold the electorate in contempt until a voter opens a checkbook. Philistine is as philistine does. And woe to any who notice and then speak of it. That which is most base is now the summit. And where we once enjoyed The Voice of Firestone, Arthur Murray's Dance Party, and The Bell Telephone Hour, we are treated to screeching, moaning, and dry heaving on American Idol, head spinning and writhing on So You Think You Can Dance, and pedestrian mewling on Deal or No Deal. This too will pass.
Meanwhile I invite Appleby to try singing motets by Josquin de Prez; not easy.
proreason| 1.13.11 @ 11:55AM
How many skulls can they have from 20,000 years ago? What makes them think they are random samples? Most would have to come from grave sites, wouldn't they? And wouldn't grave sites contain the wealthiest and most powerful members of the societies of the time, with the best access to food and mates, and from an era when the disparities in size and capabilites might be much greater than in the modern world.
I'll tell you. I have totally lost respect for scientists. Not just because of the climate scam but also because of the recent articles that indicate scientists and medical researchers pretty much get the result they are looking for; and also because of the takeover of universities by marxists.
My first reaction now to ANY scientific finding is....it's bullshit.
amber lamps| 1.13.11 @ 12:31PM
I have to admit, I'm with you on new "scientific discoveries." They almost always set off my BS detector, and I always look for the agenda it supports. But then again, I keep my tin foil hat locked down tight these days...
YeloStalyn| 1.13.11 @ 3:19PM
This is exactly why I enjoy a couple of hot dogs at the ball park every time I go... cancer be damned!!
And use the pink sugar packets to boot!!
Scientist are close to the same ladder rung as politicians ans lawyers in my book.
Frank| 1.13.11 @ 11:59AM
Lawyers can only be held in check by tort reform.
Tort reform will only happen when lawyers begin suing lawyers. Which may be the one good outcome of Obamacare, when all doctors are government employees.
Bill| 1.13.11 @ 3:19PM
The most effective way to reduce useless litigation is for America to adopt the English rule that the losing party pays the winning party's attorney's fees.
Occam's Tool| 1.14.11 @ 1:06AM
Precisely, Bill! Loser pays is a great idea, much better than caps on pain and suffering. That punishes the VERY SMALL minority that actually have a real case.
Ray| 1.13.11 @ 12:07PM
People are getting dumber, according to science. Well, perhaps it's for the best. After all, I'd rather have a single dumb neanderthal fixing my car than a thousand smart scientist telling me that the car is a potential threat to all of humanity even though they, themselves, drive cars.
I mean, really, who's smarter; the bicycle mechanic who invents power flight or college educated scientist who claims that power flight is theoretically impossible?
Claypoole| 1.13.11 @ 12:23PM
Anyone who has looked under the hood of a late-model car can understand why one good mechanic is worth a hundred professors of philosophy. And the same can be said for one good plumber, one good electrician, etc. These people have value because they can actually do something we need to have done. Which one would you rather do without: your local politician, or the guy who makes sure you're warm in the winter? Or the vintner who makes your wine?
Roger McKinney| 1.13.11 @ 1:26PM
Seriously, Dr. John Sanford, a retired Cornell Professor, shows in "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome" that the human genome has been deteriorating for millenia. This and the shrinking brain discovery prove Darwin wrong. We are devolving!
The pyramids, temples in S. America made with 100+ ton stones, and many other mysteries (for which the popular solution is alien visitations) suggest that humans were much smarter in the distant past than today. One researcher speculates that humans invented writing only after their brains had deteriorated to the point that their memory was no longer reliable. And that's why we have no written records of the earlier superior humanity.
Occam's Tool| 1.14.11 @ 1:09AM
Roger, you have forced me to do this:
Devo - Jocko Homo Lyrics
Songwriters: Mothersbaugh, Mark
Customize:
The lyrics to "Jocko Homo" by Devo:
They tell us that
We lost our tails
Evolving up
From little snails
I say it's all
Just wind in sails
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
We're pinheads now
We are not whole
We're pinheads all
Jocko homo
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
Are we not pins?
We are Devo
Monkey men all
In business suit
Teachers and critics
All dance the poot
Are we not men?
We are Devo
[ Devo Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]
Are we not men?
D E V O
Are we not pins?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
Forget about God made man
But he used the monkey to do it
Apes in the plan
We're all here to prove it
I can walk like an ape
Talk like an ape
I can do what a monkey can do
God made man
But a monkey supplied the glue
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
We are Devo
We must be
D E V O
We must be
D E V O
We must be
D E V O
Okay let's go
Size Doesn't Matter?| 1.13.11 @ 1:52PM
The longer I live, the less it’s possible to take the latest scientific “discovery” seriously.
Consider all the competing “studies” that lead to books about the proper diet. Why, this vitally interesting dimension of our lives is such a growth industry!
As far as the recent conclusions of the “scientists” about the human brain losing volume---
Around twenty years ago, or so, there was a TV program about a rare disease that caused the brain to wither, and eventually kill one. This man had a son with this problem, and he determined to try to find out how to solve the condition.
The bottom line---somehow he did find out what to do, and some people with the problem were saved.
However, when they died, an autopsy revealed that only a tiny portion of the brain was EVER functional---maybe a pea sized volume!
So, all their life, these people had been able to get by like normal people by using WHAT THEY HAD.
Perhaps the ultimate example of “size doesn’t matter”!
JReynolds| 1.13.11 @ 4:41PM
Chris & Roger: Rofl! Thank you.
Tina B| 1.13.11 @ 5:16PM
Some really great data here. Thanks.
Just throwing this out there to some of you brains who are believers:
If God places each soul into each person, as He tells us He knew us before we were in the womb, and "scientists" succeed in cloning a human, aren't they now demanding that God come up with a soul for their new "creation"? Can this become the moment when He then says "Enough!" and sends His Son to gather His children home?
Just something I used to speculate on with my late hubby (who has the answers by now but isn't telling).
Debra| 1.19.11 @ 3:23AM
I am with you on the cloning and we are getting so close. So far it is not allowed but I am sure just like everything else, there is already something going on somewhere. All we can do is be ready at all times.
Michael L. Hauschild| 1.13.11 @ 9:50PM
Great article, I actually laughed out loud.
Joe Smythe| 1.14.11 @ 6:28PM
Hmm, so if human brains have been systematically getting smaller over the millenia, it's possible that the rate of shrinkage may vary versus latitude, longitude, or some other variable, right?
Anyway, I don't think in our lifetimes we're noticing the effects of human crainia shrinking by 1/15th of a tennis ball. Rather, increasing diversity since 1965 has finally awoken us to the fact that the average global IQ is around 88.
mjfin| 1.16.11 @ 11:06PM
Ah, well. Intelligence is overrated anyway, and does not have the survival value you might think.
Otherwise we'd all have IQ's equivalent to 180 (which would be the new 100). The reason we don't is because for probably the last 50,000 years, most of the potential ancestors of very intelligent people were eaten by animals.
Damn that's an interesting rock formation. I am sure I can take another minute before the lion gets here.
Hardcase| 1.18.11 @ 7:11AM
Biologically first generation hybrids tend to be superior. Succeeding generations however, tend to be progressively inferior. Think about it.
tyrtle| 1.18.11 @ 8:06AM
Shrinking brain sizes says nothing about intelligence. If that were the case we would expect IQ scores to also be decreasing, but instead we see that they have steadily been increasing across generations. Look up the "Flynn Effect" for more information on that.
Marlimus| 1.18.11 @ 8:11AM
If the purpose of the article is to provide a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the modern obsession with banality and triviality in the face of ubiquitous opportunities for learning, then bravo. However, if the author is seriously concerned that humans have become 'dumber' because brain sizes have been reduced then the author is misguided. The level complexity of intereference patterns caused by synaptic activity among neurons, NOT the size of the brain, is the better standards of mental capacity. In much the same way, the modern day laptop is vastly superior to the supercomputers of the 1960's as silicon replaced the vacuum tubes of a bygone era. Correlating brain size to intelligence is a mockery of science.
Joe Schmoe| 1.18.11 @ 12:22PM
Were the researchers smart enough to assume their findings are valid?
Jeff Fillmore| 1.18.11 @ 2:43PM
I m not dum. I gradgewaeted from the thurd grade. Wen I grow up I m gona bee a bran sirjen.
Jarrett| 1.19.11 @ 12:10AM
Well, highly intelligent people probably realize how messed up this world is and decide not to put their children through it so they don't have any. Thus the dumb people take over. QED.
Pond Dweller| 2.6.11 @ 11:38PM
Foremost, congrats to Chris and the American Spectator Editorial team. I think I love this publication.
I stumbled upon this Chris´ opinion via websearch for more info on the Discover article. Always loved searches with an happy ending :)
Now, business: Chris, stop complaining! :)
You need not to be Einstein to find the pdf, only to know where to look for. I'm not Einstein and did it. Your wife might be able to better illustrate such difference. Literally! eheheh :)
Following on Chris' dilemma, I wonder: could it be, we males lost not ONE tennis ball-equivalent but rather a pair of golf balls? That way we could lose one on each side of the brain and keep balance :)
Then again...
Cheers
miss many| 5.27.11 @ 9:12AM
"That is, I can once I figure out how to download the pdf. And, apparently, you have to be some kind of Einstein to print the damn thing."
Sorry to break it to you...judging from your computer aptitude, may be as much as half of your brain has atrophied...
Adidas | 8.11.11 @ 5:41AM
is good
العاب | 4.10.12 @ 12:52PM
thank you