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What evolutionary advantages might there be, if any, of the currently observable level of stupidity in Homo sapiens?

anglophone 8 July 21
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3

I'm hopeful that more of the Stupids will die off before they reproduce. That will definitely elevate the world's IQ average.

1

makes the the ones a smidge less stupid seem smarter. they have shoe tying contest and stuff. the more stupid wear crocs and such.

3

Since agriculture came along and gave us abundant free food without having to hunt for it. The most stupid have taken the opportunity to breed as fast as they could, and the human brain which had been growing up until then has been shrinking ever since, the last five/ten thousand year or so, because thinking tends to bring reserve with it, making planned families the norm with thinkers, and brains are expensive organs requiring high grade hunter gatherer type food. The evolutionary 'effect', since I do not know if it is an advantage, is to shrink the brain.

The problem with evolution by natural selection is, that it has no foresight, and only reacts to the current economic and environmental situation. That one day there may come a crisis which we may need our once large brains to survive, is quite beyond it.

There is a story, which may not be fully objective science. That every few tens of thousands of years for the last few millions, nature produces a generation of saber toothed predators. ( There have been, cats, wolves, bears, and even sheep at least.) And nature gives them ever longer and bigger teeth to feed on ever larger animals. The problem though is that every so often the really large prey species, receive a population check, Ice Age, drought whatever, and there is then a crisis for predators, when there is a need for predators to feed efficiently on small prey for a while. The saber tooths never come though it. But then the crisis is over the big animals come back, and evolution says, here is a great food source that animals with very long stabbing teeth could exploit. And the whole thing starts over.

Nice use of metaphor: “…evolution says, here is a great food source that animals with very long stabbing teeth could exploit.”

My critical thinking brain warned me, “Evolution doesn’t have a purpose” and then saw the metaphor.

The fiction writers I know are always stealing ideas for their stories. Those who write for kids could explain evolution by having a character use the metaphor.

@yvilletom Yes certainly metaphore, just to illustrate the point about foresight. You have to be very careful though, really the story is rubbish in that although factually correct, it needs so many qualifications and nuances added, to make it even approach being a respectical comment on science, that it would go on for pages, or be open to willful misunderstanding. But fortunately most of the people on here are relatively science savay, so I content myself with just saying "not fully objective science" at the start.

0

The advantage is that a few sapiens are less stupid than most sapiens and do better during the time they are alive.

2

Part of "cool" is ignorance in recent modern culture, and "cool" is always sexy.
Consider "The Fonz" and concepts like "interchangeable dumb blonds" or a zombie movie where a girl hears that a hot zombie dude wants to eat her brain responds "I don't mind!"
There's nothing quite like going to school at any grade level enjoying the material and after answering questions in class being aggressively called a "nerd" when the teacher leaves the class.
So the disadvantage is that our species now generally understands nothing about the technology they use and have no solutions for the environmental problems we're creating with those technologies. The advantage if you're not a "nerd" if you're not a "know it all" is that you're more likely to fuck.
It's all about sexual selection, and media has reinforced our insecurities to avoid everyone that we perceive as smarter than us, after all can you trust someone you can't understand?
It all started when men became convinced that drug and alcohol impaired women were easier to have sex with, but mentally impaired (read stupid) women were cheaper since they didn't have to buy them drinks.
It's all been going down hill since life got complex and stupid became sexy.

The entire situation is befuddling to the sapiosexual, but sapiosexuality might save the planet.

"stupid became sexy" I can go with that. I also like the rest of your analysis.

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