[threethirtytwo]

There's a saying that the intelligence of an average prehistoric cave man should be, in general, higher than a modern day human simply because the lack of technology required stone age humans to be far more intelligent then we are today. Now you can survive by working as a clerk in McDs, but in the stone age you needed to be on your toes and smart af.

LLMs are just continuing the trend humanity has long been traveling down.

[Aurornis]

> There's a saying that the intelligence of an average prehistoric cave man should be, in general, higher than a modern day human simply because the lack of technology required stone age humans to be far more intelligent then we are today. Now you can survive by working as a clerk in McDs, but in the stone age you needed to be on your toes and smart af.

This is a funny twist on the glorification of the past.

Modern humans have been getting smarter even over the relatively short time periods that we’ve been measuring.

It’s called the Flynn effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Modern day humans still can and do survive in the wild if they so desire. It’s not some lost intelligence that was only achievable by past ancient humans.

[threethirtytwo]

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/03/americans-iq-s...

[threethirtytwo]

1. No IQ tests for prehistoric humans. 2. IQ is going down in the US.

[Aurornis]

> 2. IQ is going down in the US.

Flynn effect research says otherwise.

If you think prehistoric humans were geniuses because They could survive in the wild, by that measure monkeys and gorillas must be geniuses too.

[threethirtytwo]

>Flynn effect research says otherwise.

Flynn effect is just a trend for the past century or so and it's an international measure. For the past decade there's been a trend for the US exclusively that is not aligned with the flynn effect.

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/03/americans-iq-s...

[dTal]

That doesn't pass the sniff test, or chimpanzees would be smarter than humans.

[Zambyte]

No, the CHLCA (Chimpanzee–Human Last Common Ancestor) would be smarter than humans. It could be that chimpanzee intelligence declined faster than human intelligence. Unlikely, but I want to clarify that we did not evolve from chimpanzees. We share a common ancestor.

[threethirtytwo]

Stone age humans. Not pre hominids.

[throw4847285]

How do you know that? What do you know about prehistory? Nothing. You might as well be picturing the Flintstones in your head.

You're using broadly shared but totally unsubstantiated about past humans just to argue that things are good right now.

[threethirtytwo]

So you're claim is prehistoric humans are stupider? Also unsubstantiated. And insulting to prehistoric humans. That kind of behavior isn't allowed on HN. Don't disparage a group.

[nicce]

> Now you can survive by working as a clerk in McDs, but in the stone age you needed to be on your toes and smart af.

In stone age, you had to focus on other things than thinking to have enough food for the next day. And to survive otherwise.

[pjc50]

"Flynn effect" claimed that intelligence has been increasing over time. At least we can sort of measure things in the modern era, while objectively assessing the intelligence of the long-dead is turning into skull-measuring territory.

[threethirtytwo]

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/03/americans-iq-s...