Keith Hudson has written a provocative piece suggesting that the human
species will split on the basis of intelligence. It will, Keith theorizes,
do so on the basis of the extent to which it is able to intellectually cope
with, and utilize, advanced technology based on the microchip. He suggests
that this process will be augmented by genetic engineering, with those
(presumably the highest of the techies) able to afford it testing their
mates for intelligence and ensuring that their offspring are endowed with
the proper genetic material.
This is an interesting idea, but it raises the question of what drives
intelligence. I would suggest that if there is such a thing as natural
selection in relation to intelligence (there probably is), it is highly
circumstantial in nature, and not driven by a single variable such as
technology. Whatever broad occupational group people find themselves in,
the more intelligent stand a much better chance of survival than the less
intelligent. The survival of a hunting-gathering family depended on the
accumulation of a tremendous amount of knowledge about the environment and
its harvestable flora and fauna, and a very keen sense of observation about
what was changing in that environment. Many hunter-gatherer families simply
couldn't hack it and didn't survive. I would suggest that, in the
development of human intelligence to date, we probably owe far more to early
hunter-gatherers than we ever will to the microchip.
I have a fourteen year old daughter who is very familiar with the computer.
It's certain that this marvelous tool has an impact on what she thinks about
and how she solves problems. Yet I'm at a loss about how I would compare
her intellectual development with that of some of the slum or street kids
I've seen in Sao Paulo, Delhi or Moscow. Many of those kids need to think
about their day to day continuity, and I very much doubt that they would
apply any less intelligence to this than my daughter does to her computer.
We should not overlook that about ninety percent of the world's population
is like those street kids, in a continuous strategic mode around personal
security and survival. If I were looking for a significant, next-species,
advancement in human intelligence, I would be inclined to search for it
among these people, and not among California techies.
Ed Weick
