After reading about Toba,
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/10/22/163397584/how-human-beings-almost-vanished-from-earth-in-70-000-b-c
I wonder how much of a filtering, based on IQ, it imposed on humans. Along
similar lines, it is said that Cro-Magnons was driven to extinction by
Homo Sapien but indirectly through the competition for resources and
forcing Cro-Magnons into less fertile surroundings. The direct test of IQ
is making connections between clues and being able to make inferences into
the future. If I realize that these mushrooms are probably safe to eat
because mice nibble on them, I gain a strategic advantage if desperately
hungry. [BTW, I would have failed that test as I did not pick up on that
clue!!] I would think that the primitive world was hard in which to
survive, as “remembered” knowledge was a precious resource. My life is
thrown into turmoil when I forget where I left my car keys, but losing my
spear or way on a hunt would be precarious.
Secondly, I think there has been a realization of the superiority of
knowledge over brute strength over the course of human history. It
probably took us a time to realize that it is better to be smart than just
powerful, albeit I wonder if we are not losing that in the modern world.
Since the post-Sputnik era, there has been a decline in STEMs education and
too much pride in people who don’t understand science, which form the basis
of our technological society. Outsourcing might be economically
competitive, but takes us from the day to day activity of being
technologically capable, to merely audition and managing others with
technology. I remember watching “Star Trek: The Menagerie,” about the
Talosians who lost their ability to work with technology that they
invented. I did not give credence to that until I came to realize just how
many things I too have forgotten over the last 30 years. I probably forgot
most of my German which I learned in high school, mainly from lack of use.
This is probably true in my understanding of pure math, but I don’t have a
way to gauge it.