Re:Get Smarter
by radu_floricica on Sunday June 28, 2009 @08:29AM
(#677675)
The article compared communication overload with calisthenics. Of course that right after doing exercise you're not at your top performance... but stop for a while and the benefits of months of training will show.
In other words, he's comparing long time IQ change, and you're talking about short term.
We know that communications overload reduces your IQ: http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2007/ca20070...
Of course, that's just e-mail at work. But the "dumbing-down" of IT, education and work in general is unlikely to increase our IQ.
Derek Bickerton, sometime co-author of the article's referenced William Calvin, believes that we may already be going the other way. In his book "Adam's Tongue" he points out how, over time, humans are becoming eerily similar to ants or termites, He also notes that it takes about 40 generations for a wolf to become a domesticated dog-like animal and that the caste system in India, which has probably been in place longer, may have left a permanent trace upon it's members.