• Question: Is there a limit to how smart people and communities can be ?

    Asked by wl to Claire, Liad, Ruth, Ryan, Mako on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Ryan Cheale

      Ryan Cheale answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      I don’t think there’s an upper limit, the way we learn changes what we learn changes.

      For example technology, older people generally struggle to use what a toddler can use. Things like that mean we, as a whole, are getting more intelligent.

      Isolated communities wills struggle, intelligence isn’t just independent it’s a combination of everyone and that’s how society progresses.

    • Photo: Claire Bryer

      Claire Bryer answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Unfortunately Ryan is not basing his opinion on evidence. Yes, there is indeed an upper limit to how smart you can get. It’s complicated but it’s to do with biological trade-offs in evolution. Basically, brains use a LOT of energy (around 20% of the total), and we have probably become as efficient as we could be at using this energy.
      But it is thought that in the future we could make computers that could take some of the processing load, and become some sort of super-human!

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