- #1
MathJakob
- 161
- 5
I've been thinking about evolution and why it may or may not have stopped. I wanted to ask here if humans are still evolving, will we ever stop? Now obviously I don't expect us to start growing a 6th toe simply because we don't need a 6th toe but in terms of intelligence?
As mankind learns more and more about the universe, we're trying to cram in more and more complex things and that got me thinking... As long as humans keep learning, will the brain become more powerful in terms of computational speeds, abstract thinking, memory and analytical thinking etc.
I think it's safe to say that mankind is more intelligent now than it was 500 years ago but is this purely because of science or has our brain evolved / adapted to understand more complex things? For example in another 100 years could we expect calculus to be taught in school to 13 year olds?
I'm not sure if this is the correct way to view it but as it stands string theory is kind of at the forefront of physics and students only start to learn it once they've covered all the previous topics by which time they're about 28 years old?
So imagine if 20 years later someone discovers some other type of theory. Now a student has to learn all the previous stuff and string theory before they can understand the newest theory. It just seems like soon humans will spend half their life studying in order to understand the latest theory?
So basically what I'm asking is will this growth in learning cause human brains to evolve so they can learn the material faster? I assume that in 100 years we will know so much more about the universe that kids wanting to learn that new stuff will have to learn calculus at 13, QM at 16, string theory at 18 etc.
How will human brains respond to the ever growing complex and "unnatural" thinking? I think there was a quote from Richard Feynman that said "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." lol so our brains are not wired to understand these topics naturally, but hopefully in the future it will come intuitively like algebra?
As mankind learns more and more about the universe, we're trying to cram in more and more complex things and that got me thinking... As long as humans keep learning, will the brain become more powerful in terms of computational speeds, abstract thinking, memory and analytical thinking etc.
I think it's safe to say that mankind is more intelligent now than it was 500 years ago but is this purely because of science or has our brain evolved / adapted to understand more complex things? For example in another 100 years could we expect calculus to be taught in school to 13 year olds?
I'm not sure if this is the correct way to view it but as it stands string theory is kind of at the forefront of physics and students only start to learn it once they've covered all the previous topics by which time they're about 28 years old?
So imagine if 20 years later someone discovers some other type of theory. Now a student has to learn all the previous stuff and string theory before they can understand the newest theory. It just seems like soon humans will spend half their life studying in order to understand the latest theory?
So basically what I'm asking is will this growth in learning cause human brains to evolve so they can learn the material faster? I assume that in 100 years we will know so much more about the universe that kids wanting to learn that new stuff will have to learn calculus at 13, QM at 16, string theory at 18 etc.
How will human brains respond to the ever growing complex and "unnatural" thinking? I think there was a quote from Richard Feynman that said "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." lol so our brains are not wired to understand these topics naturally, but hopefully in the future it will come intuitively like algebra?
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