<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> ----- Forwarded Message -----<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Norma <pirie3@wildblue.net><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> novelty-lifeboat@yahoogroups.com <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 4:55<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [novelty-lifeboat] Re: are we getting smarter?<br> </font> </div> <wbr><div id="yiv985814799">
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">These are good questions; good subjects for our
best and creative selves. For me, a lot of the nihilistic thinking comes
from thinking with our conditioned intellects, which rightly tells us there are
too many folk on the planet, doing too many things to disturb the balance of
healthy water, air, and food sources for life to continue as is. So, we
ain't. Cause we can't! Greed and addiction seems to outweigh
our basic common sense and willingness to survive as we are. Our hearts
and spirits are always telling us this fact, that we must become willing to die
to our old selves and become a new kind of human. Life and cellular
intelligence is much smarter than we are, and I do feel we will evolve into new
life forms. It remains to be seen if we can have willing participation
in that evolution. Though, in my opinion, our DNA is designed to that
advantage and potential. If that includes continued evolution on the
third dimension, that may mean our future selves may have to learn how to
survive extremes of solar activity, perhaps global droughts or iceages, maybe
severe radiation or poisions if we decide to use weapons of mass
destuction. Life forms of humans come and go, but we are such a
successful, smart, and adaptable predator, that I think life will not give up on
us completely. If we choose to move into other higher dimensions of
reality, we can really make no assumptions whatsoever. At this time, the
amazing thing that I see that is so different than in past decades, is that
there are so many people awakening to these bizarre realities, and so many very
smart and good folk absolutely refusing to face the extremes of our dilimma, and
instead moving into the comfort of very conservative, fearful, fanatic belief
systems. . especially those of the Book, and a lot of them New Age folk
moving more and more into varying forms of escape. Which is par for the
course in all perilous times. I deeply feel the fragility of the
human race as we have created it in the 20th century, and for that reason I have
great hope for the 21st century! We keep creating new tools and
meanings and purposes for the constant changes we are making in our identities
of worlds, nations, relationships, genders, and selves! We are
definitely in the quantum soup, and the life-boat is picking up speed, dear
Ones! Norma P</font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid;" dir="ltr">I'm in the process of finishing EcoMind by Frances Moore Lapp�. She
challenges my thinking about so many of things; including that we can
collectively wise up!
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<div><font style="font: 13px/normal Helvetica Neue; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" color="#333333" size="4"><b>Thought Trap 7: It's Too Late</b></font></div>
<div><font style="font: 12px/normal Helvetica Neue; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" color="#222222" size="3"><b><i>The last thought trap is �It�s too late.� This is
the one I feel the most. I�ve see a study showing that if we don�t start
cutting our carbon emissions by 2015, it's game over for the planet. It�s not
too late?</i></b></font></div><wbr><img src="cid:1.2233750161@web172204.mail.ir2.yahoo.com">
<div style='font: 12px/normal "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;'><br></div>
<div><font style="font: 12px/normal Helvetica Neue; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" color="#222222" size="3">It�s true that it is too late to avoid the profound
suffering that would not have occurred if we hadn�t been so trapped for so
long. So, I am not saying that things are not in terrible shape.</font></div>
<div><font style="font: 12px/normal Helvetica Neue; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" color="#222222" size="3">But I <i>am</i> saying that what defeats human beings is
when we feel futile, when we feel we don�t have a clue about what to do to be
effective. This deep human need to be useful, to contribute -- <i>that�s</i>
the key.</font></div>
<div><font style="font: 12px/normal Helvetica Neue; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" color="#222222" size="3">It�s not too late to figure out how to shift our own
energy and the energy of others toward this incredible challenge. We can start
now to build the spirit toward what we can do to make a difference.</font></div>
<div>more at: <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/336-ready-set-re-frame-a-conversation-with-frances-moore-lappe-about-ecomind" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/336-ready-set-re-frame-a-conversation-with-frances-moore-lappe-about-ecomind</a></div>
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<div>On Jan 29, 2013, at 5:40 PM, Arek Fressadi wrote:</div><wbr><span> </span>
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<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Laurie,</span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This appears to be a
�cut and paste� post. You haven�t added any of your own comment, presuming
then, that you either concur with the conclusions, or find the topic of
sufficient interest to rouse some conversation in the
lifeboat.</span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">While it appears that
our intelligence as a measure of cultural acuity is increasing, there is an
argument that our �hardware� hasn�t been upgraded in 50,000 years and what we
may classify as improvements are really only �progress traps� leading to the
ultimate demise of civilization and perhaps the extinction of our
species.</span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">While Suzuki and
others have made arguments on the potential demise of us or our planet (at
least to the extent that the planet cannot sustain current civilization), I�d
proffer a read of A Short History of Progress, by Ronald
Wright.</span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Progress-Ronald-Wright/dp/0786715472" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Progress-Ronald-Wright/dp/0786715472</a></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/2004/11/07/massey-lectures-2004-a-short-history-of-progress/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/2004/11/07/massey-lectures-2004-a-short-history-of-progress/</a></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">there is also a
documentary called Surviving Progress based on Wright�s
book.</span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462014/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462014/</a></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">ciao,</span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span></font></div>
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<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Arek
Fressadi</span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.fressadi.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.fressadi.com/</a></span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></div>
<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: navy; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">520.216.4103</span></font></div></div>
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<div class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;"> Laurie
[<a href="mailto:libramoon42@mindspring.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" ymailto="mailto:libramoon42@mindspring.com">mailto:libramoon42@mindspring.com</a>]
<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, January 29,
2013 3:21 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> seers and
seekers; novelty lifeboat<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [novelty-lifeboat] are we
getting smarter?</span></font></div></div>
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<h3 style="background: white;"><b><font color="black" size="4" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a title="http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-flynn-effect-are-we-getting-smarter.html" href="http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-flynn-effect-are-we-getting-smarter.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-flynn-effect-are-we-getting-smarter.html</a></span></font></b></h3>
<h3 style="background: white; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><font color="black" size="6" face="Arial"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 22.5pt;">The Flynn Effect:
are we getting smarter?</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></h3>
<div style="word-spacing: 0px;" id="yiv985814799post-body-5702346102594341246">
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>I
enjoy a habit of contrarian-poking at overused assumptions. Especially the
hoary nostrum that humanity is not improving. <a href="http://www.davidbrin.com/2001.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elsewhere I take on one aspect of
this cynical calumny</a>, where folks sadly shake their heads over how
<i><span style="font-style: italic;">"our ethics haven't kept pace with
technology."</span></i> What malarkey. What stunning ability to ignore all we
have done in the last 60 years.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Oh,
I'll avow we may not be getting better <i><span style="font-style: italic;">fast enough</span></i> to save ourselves or the
planet. That tense race is central to my novels <a href="http://www.davidbrin.com/earth.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></span></i><i><span style="font-style: italic;">EARTH </a>and <i><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.davidbrin.com/existence.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">EXISTENCE</a>. </span></i>I'm
no complacent polyanna. Rather, the fact that we've improved a bit demands we
redouble our efforts! It is cynics who are at best lazy and
unhelpful.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Putting
ethics aside, what other areas of improvement might do the most good?<i><span style="font-style: italic;"> How about making everybody
smarter?</span></i> Better able to grasp complex situations and
knowledge. Better equipped to understand diverse views and negotiate pragmatic
solutions. Yes, there are forces in today's society, especially America, that
seem bent on pushing in the opposite direction - lobotomizing large swathes of
the public The worst of these at present is run by Roger Ailes on behalf
of foreign trillionaires, but there are noxious forces pushing moronic
oversimplification on the far-left, as well. So it has always
been.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Decades
ago, science fiction author Poul Anderson wrote a terrific novel -- <i><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brain-Wave-ebook/dp/B003XRELES/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=contbrin-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brain
Wave</a> -- </span></i>that asked: what if every creature on Earth started
<i><span style="font-style: italic;">getting smarter</span></i> at a steady
pace, beginning the same day? In that story, it happens because our
solar system moves out a galactic zone that repressed electrical activity
slightly. A magical story device but one that may have some relevance after
all, as I'll assert below.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Today,
much talk revolves around expanding human intelligence the way that it has
increased for thousands of years -- through <i><i><font face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee";' class="ms__id1466">prosthetics</span></font></i></i>.
By using external devices to expand what we can know and see and pay attention
to. This revolution began with cave paintings and then writing, but
really took off with the invention of printing presses and glass lenses...
then newspapers and steamships, radio, television, libraries, the Internet.
Each generation, grouches greeted these advances with: "normal people cannot
cope!" Countered by transcendentalists proclaiming "this will make us all as
wise and mighty as gods!"</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>The
irony, of course, is that both the cynics and fervid technophiles always
turned out each to be about <i><i><font face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee";' class="ms__id1474">half</span></font></i></i> right.
(For more on this, see <b><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97efU9oXFvk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Third Millennium Problem
Solving</a>.</span></b> A 90 minute <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Google
Tech Talk</span></b> spanning the entire range of human "discourse" and how it
is evolving.)</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>But
today let's veer away from obsessing on our toys and prostheses and external
cyborg enhancements and instead focus on the central, "meatiest" aspect of all
this. Are we - on average - getting smarter <i><span style="font-style: italic;">within our squishy human brains?</span></i>
To explore this briefly for us, I invited fellow member of the Lifeboat
Foundation<span class="yiv985814799apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Francis Heylighen</a>, of the Free
University of Brussels, who will offer some background about the "Flynn
Effect."</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><b><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: bold;'>==
Guest post: "Why it appears that we are getting smarter"
==</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><b><b><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;' class="ms__id1493">...
by Francis Heylighen</span></font></b></b><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>James
Flynn, a political scientist working in New Zealand ,
observed in the 1980's that the score-results of different groups of people on
standard intelligence tests had consistently increased over the past decades.
Earlier researchers had failed to pay attention to that trend, because IQ
scores are always calculated with respect to the average score for the present
group. By definition, the average is set to 100, and the standard deviation to
15. Someone who scores one standard deviation better than the average would
therefore get an IQ of 115. But if that person's score would be compared with
the average for the corresponding group, but tested one generation earlier,
then the final score would be about 125! Flynn was the first to systematically
make such cross-generational comparisons.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Since
then, the so-called "Flynn effect" has been confirmed by numerous studies. The
same pattern, an average increase of some three IQ points per decade, was
found for virtually every type of intelligence test, delivered to virtually
every type of group. This means that people nowadays are on average some 20 IQ
points smarter than people in 1940. People with a perfectly normal IQ of 90
then would according to present norms merely score 70, i.e. as having a mild
form of mental retardation. For one type of test, Raven's Progressive
Matrices, Flynn found data that spanned a whole century. He concluded that
someone who scored among the best 10% a hundred years ago, would nowadays be
categorized among the 5% weakest.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
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<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>One
might expect that the Flynn effect would be most pronounced for tests that
measure the results of education. The opposite is true, however: the increase
is most striking for tests measuring the ability to recognize abstract,
non-verbal patterns. Tests emphasizing traditional school knowledge show much
less progress. This means that something more profound than mere accumulation
of data is happening inside people's heads.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Flynn
himself admitted being baffled by his initial results, and finding it hard to
believe that his generation was significantly more intelligent than the one of
his parents. Indeed, compared to the previous generation, the number of people
who score high enough to be classified as "genius" has increased more than 20
times. This means that we should now be witnessing, in Flynn's own words, "a
cultural renaissance too great to be overlooked". Because he found this
conclusion implausible, he suggested that what has risen is not intelligence
itself, but some kind of "abstract problem solving ability" that may have more
to do with skill at test-taking than with creative
intelligence.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>But
if we look at the ever-accelerating production of scientific discoveries,
technological innovations and cultural developments in general, the "cultural
renaissance" does not seem such an absurd idea anymore. Perhaps we cannot
pinpoint a dozen contemporary Einsteins simply because there are so many of
them that their contributions have not had the time yet to diffuse to the
level that everybody would know them. <i><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></i>If there would be hundreds or
thousands of Einstein-level geniuses in the scientific community nowadays,
then it seems likely that none of them would stand out enough to get the kind
of worldwide recognition we associate with exceptional figures like Darwin, da
Vinci, or Newton. Moreover, our society and the problems it investigates have
become much more complex than in the days of these historical geniuses.
<i><span style="font-style: italic;">(We have already pickjed the "low-hanging
fruit" -db) </span></i>It should not surprise us that present-day geniuses may
be working on subjects too complex or abstract to be appreciated outside a
relatively small circle of specialists. But that does not diminish the
superior intellectual level of their contributions.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Nowadays,
most authors tend to consider the Flynn effect as a real cognitive
improvement, not a mere artefact of testing methods (although the fact that
people are more used to taking tests may have helped somewhat in getting
better scores). There is less agreement about the origin of the effect,
though. Most likely, it is due to the interaction between a variety of factors
that tend to accompany the tremendous economic and social advances of the past
century:</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>o
better health care (less serious illnesses that can delay or damage brain
development<a href="http://www.davidbrin.com/2001.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">,</a> less exposure to toxins such
as lead, smog, food poisoning, etc.) </span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>o
better nutrition (better availability of fresh foods, proteins, fats,
vitamins, minerals such as iron and iodine, etc. that are necessary to build
and support the brain)</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>o
higher levels of education (although this is not the whole story -- as Flynn
found that the IQs of children have been rising even during periods when the
time spent in school remained the same).</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>o
higher cognitive stimulation by an increasingly complex
environment</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>This
last factor may be particularly important. Indeed, our everyday world offers
ever more abstract information to be processed ever more quickly-in the form
of computer games, books, high-tech gadgets, television, advertisements, news
items, magazine articles, blog entries, movies, etc. This requires ever more
activity from the brain, thus "training" it to become more
intelligent.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Some
people like to complain that our society is "dumbing down", noting that very
few read Shakespeare or listen to Bach nowadays. However, these people
typically fail to notice that hardly anybody read Shakespeare a century ago
(if they could read at all), and that probably more are reading him now than
ever before. Moreover, an objective observer cannot fail to notice that a
typical TV series or even an ad nowadays is much more complex and fast-paced
than it used to be half a century ago. Thus, even the "non-intellectual"
stimuli we are bombarded with demand ever more intense cognitive processing.
In the workplace too, we see that what used to be repetitive industrial and
agricultural jobs tend to be replaced by knowledge work, caring for people, or
controlling complex machinery. As a result, people with a low intellectual
level find it increasingly difficult to find a decently paying job, thus being
stimulated to develop themselves.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>A
final plausible factor contributing to intelligence increases is that families
have become smaller: with fewer children, parents have simply much more
attention and resources to invest in each child. The effect on intelligence is
confirmed by the observation that first-born or single-born children are on
average some 2 to 3 IQ points smarter than second or third-born children, who
had to compete with their siblings for parental attention.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>In
sum, while there are of course always methodological and other question marks
about something as difficult to measure as intelligence, it seems well
established now that we are indeed getting smarter. While the causes are not
fully clear yet, those we do understand leave plenty of room for further
improvement: we can definitely eat and live more healthily than we do now,
while there does not seem to be a limit to the quantity and quality of
education and cognitive stimulation achievable via the Internet. There is
certainly cause for optimism in these observations. However, we should note
that our rise in intelligence might simply be paralleling the rise in
complexity of the problems we have to deal with, so that subjectively we may
not really feel more competent to do what we need to do.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><b><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: bold;'>More
to read</span></font></b><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="3" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 12pt;'>--Bernheim,
J. (1999). The Cognitive Revolution and 21st Century Enlightenment: towards a
progressive world view.<i><span style="font-style: italic;"> Science,
Technology and Social Change</span></i>, Einstein meets Magritte (p. 63).
Kluwer.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>--Flynn,
J. R. (1987). Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure.
Psychological bulletin, 101(2), 171.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>--Flynn,
J. R. (2012).<i><span style="font-style: italic;"> Are We Getting Smarter?
Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century</span></i>. Cambridge
University Press.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>--Heylighen,
F., & Bernheim, J. (2000). Global Progress I: Empirical Evidence for
ongoing Increase in Quality-of-life.<i><span style="font-style: italic;">
Journal of Happiness Studies</span></i>,<i><span style="font-style: italic;">
1</span></i>(3), 323-349.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>--Neisser
U. (1997). Rising Scores on Intelligence Tests, American Scientist, September
- October 1997</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>--Neisser,
U. (Ed.). (1998).<i><span style="font-style: italic;"> The rising curve:
Long-term gains in IQ and related measures</span></i> (Vol. xv).
Washington , DC , US :
American Psychological Association.</span></font><font color="black" size="4" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br><br></span></font><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>--<i><i><font face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee";' class="ms__id1620">Francis Heylighen;
</span></font></i></i></span></font><font color="black" size="4" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></span></font></i></i><i><i><font color="#51154d" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee";' class="ms__id1624">Evolution</a></span></font><i><i><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;' class="ms__id1626">,
Complexity and Cognition group, Free University of
Brussels</span></font></i></i><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>==
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Afterword by Brin
==</span></b></span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Thank
you, Francis, for that excellent summary of a fascinating phenomenon. Which
makes us wonder -- is humanity "uplifting itself?"</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>There
are so many aspects to this that we have no time to explore thoroughly
here.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>1.
Can this phenomenon be partly genetic? It is a truism, widely held, that
civilization must have slowed human evolution because it gave the weak
opportunities to survive and to breed. But in fact there is every reason to
believe that human evolution sped up with the arrival of civilization, and
especially after we discovered beer! See <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Children-Prometheus-Accelerating-Human-Evolution/dp/0738201685/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=contbrin-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Christopher
Wills's book CHILDREN OF PROMETHEUS</a>. For example, clothing and
shelter technologies empowered some groups to settle the Tibetan Plateau, an
environment so harsh that selective pressures have turned Tibetans into almost
a sub-species of their own. This may really take off if segments of humanity
start adapting to space and other worlds.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>2.
I would add a few recent factors, such as changes in the toxic loads supported
by most human populations. Francis mentioned the gradual elimination of toxins
like lead from paint and gasoline - (though resisted strenuously by the same
dopes who claimed Tobacco was harmless and cars don't cause smog and that
human industry cannot change a planet's climate). Removal of lead has now been
shown to have dramatically reduced levels of violence in the
U.S. and other populations since 1970. (See my own <a href="http://davidbrin.%20blogspot.%20com/2013/%2001/getting-%20lead-out-%20quirky-tale-%20of-saving.%20html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">role
in getting the lead out of gas</a>, as a 19 year old Caltech student in
1970!)</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>The
same can also be said regarding our burdens of living <i><span style="font-style: italic;">parasites</span></i>. In
Korea after 1960, a vast de-worming effort eliminated
endemic intestinal parasites which helped improved diets to increase the
height of children by many centimeters and no doubt affected brains. Likewise,
the parasitic paramecium Toxoplasma gondii is endemic in much of the human
population and now is known to dramatically alter personality and
behavior.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>I
am hoping we'll find dozens of such things that have long nibbled away at
humanity's potential! Why? Because no simpler way can be imagined to boost
human mental and moral performance than just by eradicating factors holding it
down. It would mean that we can improve in the easiest and best way... by
eliminating that which had been crippling us.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>3)
Then there is selection. Elsewhere <a href="http://www.davidbrin.com/neoteny1.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I discuss the question of
whether humanity performed its spectacular mental "overshoot" </a>beyond what
was necessary to become the top predator, for the same reason that many other
species acquire exaggerated traits -- sexual selection. Only in my theory, it
was <i><span style="font-style: italic;">two-way</span></i> with both males and
females choosing each other based in part on savvy and smarts. In which
case, might that sort of thing resume? It could do so... if tastes
changed just a little.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Alas,
none of these things can possibly act fast enough to turn the tide and help us
in time. The real solution will be harder. It will involve looking in
the mirror - each of us, one at a time - overcoming the allure of
self-righteous dogmatism and rage, pondering little steps of self-improvement,
adding grace to our thought processes, calm consideration, subtlety, curiosity
and contingent wisdom... plus finding subtle ways to convince our neighbors to
do the same. Learning to accomplish the latter, without getting
killed... that's a sure intelligence test, if there ever was
one!</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="black" size="3" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt;"></span></font></div></div>
<div>
<div style="background: white;" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><font color="#51154d" size="4" face="Plantagenet Cherokee"><span style='color: rgb(81, 21, 77); font-family: "Plantagenet Cherokee"; font-size: 13.5pt;'>Oh,
even if we optimists are right, and a road to gradual and eclectic, free,
voluntary, individualistic and diverse improvements in human nature and
intelligence can be found, rest assured there will be many ructions and
difficulties before we finally adapt at last to a mature and relaxedly sane
state. To a world without brutish evil, rage, violence, illogic, dogmatism or
Fox News.</span></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div></div>
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<div style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238);" class="yiv985814799MsoNormal"><span class="yiv985814799post-authorvcard"><font color="black" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">Posted
by</span></font></span><span class="yiv985814799apple-converted-space"><font color="black" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span></span></font></span><span class="yiv985814799fn"><font color="black" face="Arial"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><a title="author profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></span></span></font></span></font><font color="#110668" size="2"><span><span style="color: rgb(17, 6, 104); font-size: 10.5pt;">David Bri<font color="#110668" size="2"><span style="color: rgb(17, 6, 104); font-size: 10.5pt;">n</a></span><a title="author profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></font></span></font></span><font color="#110668" size="2"><span class="yiv985814799apple-converted-space"><font color="#110668" size="2"><span style="color: rgb(17, 6, 104); font-size:
10.5pt;"> </a></font></span><font color="black" face="Arial"></font><font color="black" face="Calibri"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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