Natural Selection Dumbing us Down

[Jason]

Natural selection making 'education genes' rarer, says Icelandic study
Researchers say that while the effect corresponds to a small drop in IQ per decade, over centuries the impact could be profound

Tempting as it may be, it would be wrong to claim that with each generation humans are becoming more stupid. As scientists are often so keen to point out, it is a bit more complicated than that.
A study from Iceland is the latest to raise the prospect of a downwards spiral into imbecility. The research from deCODE, a genetics firm in Reykjavik, finds that groups of genes that predispose people to spend more years in education became a little rarer in the country from 1910 to 1975.
The scientists used a database of more than 100,000 Icelanders to see how dozens of gene variants that affect educational attainment appeared in the population over time. They found a shallow decline over the 65 year period, implying a downturn in the natural inclination to rack up qualifications.

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But the genes involved in education affected fertility too. Those who carried more “education genes” tended to have fewer children than others. This led the scientists to propose that the genes had become rarer in the population because, for all their qualifications, better educated people had contributed less than others to the Icelandic gene pool.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... ndic-study

TL;DR - Nerds have less sex.

[Forty Two]

Maybe it's nerd girls give more head?

[Jason]

Perhaps the "education genes" also codes for a homosexual tendency. I've always argued that natural selection does not select for intelligence in modern society, but apparently I was wrong. It selects against it.

[Brian Peacock]

Derp!

[JimC]

The answer is simple.

Large numbers of pretty nubile young women will be required to have sex with maths and physics teachers.

[laklak]

Throw in programmers and you've got my vote.

[Tyrannical]

Modern society is making natural selection rarer and rarer.......

[mistermack]

I'm not sure you can call what we have now natural selection.

Natural selection is when nature selects those who will breed, by making survival tough for all, and producing an excess of offspring to cope with losses.
Now we have humans CHOOSING whether to breed or not, it's a new ball game.

It's social selection.

[cronus]

Temporary blip. People will smarten up soon enough, with fully fledged AI as a competitor....won't be running around posting pics of cats on the web when the robots arise. Stocks and shares go up and down, your species may be at risk....

[JimC]

Temporary blip. People will smarten up soon enough, with fully fledged AI as a competitor....won't be running around posting pics of cats on the web when the robots arise. Stocks and shares go up and down, your species may be at risk....

I always knew you weren't really one of us, Crumple...

[pErvinalia]