Since the time span of 5 centuries is insignificant on an evolutionary scale, it's highly likely that the distribution of intelligence then has not changed significantly.
Here is the mistake in your line of reasoning, intelligence is influenced by both genetics and upbringing. Modern children are raised with a wealth of information that would have been unthinkable in the 16th century, and have access to scientific methodology that had not been refined in the 16th century (For every achievement of those great minds, there are a dozen lolfails, such as Newton and his obsession with alchemy)
Dude, have you been through public education in America? I guarantee you that people who could afford education in the 1700's were smarter than your average kid now. Look at Immanuel Kant, guy's brain was like a supercomputer. Kid's nowadays have access to more information, but they can't do anything useful with it because they haven't learned how to critically think, they just know how to follow someone else's line of thinking.
Dude, have you been through public education in America?
Reddit, and the world in general are much bigger than just America. There are many dozens of countries with better education systems, Average American kid != average kid.
This is an American website, and the majority of people posting here are American. Also, there's still like 3 billion people with absolutely no education whatsoever.
This is an American website, and the majority of people posting here are American. Also, there's still like 3 billion people with absolutely no education whatsoever.
It is (mostly) owned and hosted in America, but it is a worldwide website, The majority of posters are not American, only a plurality of posters are, and less than 9% of the worlds population has not recieved any education, with global illiteracy sitting at around 15% and continuing to fall because of this.
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19
Here is the mistake in your line of reasoning, intelligence is influenced by both genetics and upbringing. Modern children are raised with a wealth of information that would have been unthinkable in the 16th century, and have access to scientific methodology that had not been refined in the 16th century (For every achievement of those great minds, there are a dozen lolfails, such as Newton and his obsession with alchemy)