Starting From Scratch

Is there a correlation between the advancement of human intelligence and the passing of time? Where exactly are we on the Learning Curve of Human Existence?

Clearly, as time has passed, we humans have advanced our knowledge of ourselves, our history, our ability to produce food, to prevent disease, to fly, to split the adam, and to leave our planet.

But when you look at a graph of how that intelligence has improved over 5000 years, it is somewhat disappointing. For roughly 300,000 years we were stuck in a relatively slow pattern of mental and scientific creep.

Between the invention of the wheel and the printing press 5000 years passed! That is roughly 200 generations of minds that didn't have the capacity to conceive of something that could replace handwriting and clay tablets.

Just 2 ½ generations ago, humans conceived of the computer. A machine that suddenly changed the learning curve into a near 90 degree upward angle. The Learning Curve had been inching upwards for 500 years or so after being relatively flat for our entire recorded history. 

What happened?

In the 1600's Intelligence showed a sharp increase when compared to human history. But the exponential increase in scientific intelligence in the 20th century is quite unexplainable. Those who believe in the theory of evolution, Darwin's concept that humans have slowly evolved over many generations would have us believe that once the human mind reaches a certain point of absorption, of collecting information and connecting mathematical equations, it will eventually explode with expansive intelligence. Looking back over millions of years, the process has been incredibly slow, but steady. A pattern that in just a relatively minute period of time went berserk.

Starting with the printing press in 1440, suddenly minds across the planet were able to share information and the whole world became a sort of proxy mega brain itself. The impact of distributing millions of brilliant ideas expanded the collective intelligence of mankind exponentially. If one brain is good, two would be better. What about a million or two working together and sharing their intelligence?

But we still didn't have electricity, so human intelligence improved, but only incrementally. Four decades later the Industrial Age inspired more creative thinking: What if? Oh, wow, what would happen if we…?  

Applying the power of energy, of burning coal, oil, and using that to create steam…Uh oh, now we can use machines to do our work! Boom, the learning curve went up exponentially again. But in the long run, as a reflection of mankind, it was still just a blip in a couple of million years time.

Then, when the computer came along, then microchips, laptops, and the INTERNET! OMG, now everything has changed. And I mean EVERYTHING! 

The learning curve seems to have nowhere else to go! At least in the lifetime of humans. Scientists say we are on the edge of a intelligence revolution. But our learning curve is maxed out. Very little time, relatively speaking, is passing between enormous leaps in automated intelligence.

Maybe there will evolve another curve altogether. Not based on human growth and productivity. One just in it's infancy. A statistical curve reflecting another form of intelligence that never existed before.

 Maybe it's time for a New Non-Human Learning Curve. Starting from scratch.

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