Who Here Strives for Self-Knowledge and Understanding of Themselves?

[I D Shukhov]

I find it odd that the development of Web 2.0 -- the social web, social media -- is being hailed as the most important thing there is,  but there is no such emphasis on development of the "last six inches of the network":  the human brain.

What good does it do to have great technology to develop a  "social graph"  if the nodes are defective?


 

[David Randolph]

Ran across a very interesting data point yesterday. The average human brain has shrunk 200 cc over the last 30,000 years. In other words, we are a little dumber than we were earlier.

The arguments as to why that might be happening include such ideas as "we are domesticating ourselves by killing off the bastards who take advantage of the rest of us". That fits with another data point that the Guns, Germs, & Steel author  made: that the headhunters of New Guinea were some of the smartest people he had every run into.

Individual intellegence is most valuable when we are in a hunter/gatherer society. In that situation, it is "each person for him/herself against nature" and those with higher intellegence will do better.

However, once we have a more complex society, the ability to work with other people is more important. Together, we can get a more intellegent response to nature than any one genius can do on his own.

[TechTalk]

We live in a sales driven society and most Americans seem to define themselves by what they do for a living.  Of course, that statement is an extreme oversimplification of the complex cultural and economic world we live in today, however, I am pretty sure that few people would disagree with my statement.  So, if you look at self improvement from a personal wealth prospective only then perhaps improving your salesmanship and speaking abilities (e.g. speech making and presentations) are the two things that just everybody about living in the United States needs to improve upon. 

Re: Self Knowledge or lifelong learning
I have an uncommon interest in being well and broadly informed about the world I live in.  While an almost impossible task, I do try to keep current about domestic and international issues, business, politics, finance, science, and sometimes technology. 

Ran across a very interesting data point yesterday. The average human brain has shrunk 200 cc over the last 30,000 years. In other words, we are a little dumber than we were earlier.

At the start of the twentieth century, donating one's brain to science was all of the rage in Western countries.  The popular assumption was that a heavy brain was a better brain.  Dozens of high profile citizens had their brains weighed and cut up.  Charles Babbage the father of computing had a very small brain.  It was this crude approach at determining intelligence that brought the search for "genius by brain dissection" into disrepute.