Guden Oden said:
Seeing what we're doing to this planet greatly makes me question the level of intelligence of the people inhabiting it..................
Well, I think that human society is at the point where genetic evolution plays little, if any, part in our advancement. Our advancement now relies far more upon the evolution of our society.
Individual intelligence, I believe, varies vastly too much from person to person for most of it to be due to genetics (people with genetic defects aside). I presonally feel that environmental factors are the primary determination of intelligence, which in turn means that our culture and society must evolve dramatically for the race of humans as a whole to be considered intelligent.
Some anecdotal evidence for this is found in looking at nations around the world. Comparing the United States to, for example, Somalia might lead one to the conclusion that the society of the US is more intelligent than that of Somalia (In the US there's more education, more stability, better quality of life, etc.), even though it is highly unlikely that the citizens of the US are more genetically disposed to intelligence.
So, in my mind, humans are only intelligent in that we each have an individual capacity for intelligence. The unfortunate thing is that few become intelligent due to societal factors.
