How strong are your genes? How smart are you? People have
traditionally estimated answers to these questions based on
genetic
surveys and IQ Tests, which can provide
valuable answers, but stop well short of factoring in the system(s)
surrounding us. This failure to account for environmental effects
and group dynamics ultimately caps their utility when it come to
the fundamental future-related questions we all seek to answer,
like “How probable is it that I/we will survive?” or “How likely is
it that I/we will thrive?” 
But don’t worry, we’re getting better at quantifying our system
all the time. Right now, we may be on the verge of a perspective
shift that will help us to fill in a few more gaps and better our
systems definitions. Both human intelligence and evolutionary
studies appear poised for a due emphasis shift from reductionism (the
focus on individual human agents and single brains) to a more
holistic (the focus on
large groups and the surrounding bio/info/tech structures)
approach.
Cognitive theorist Jim Flynn, founder of the Flynn Effect,
argues that it
is impossible to properly measure intelligence without considering
a combination of genetic and environmental effects. He and William
Dickens of the Brookings Institution have developed a new
model, which demonstrates that environmental factors play a
much larger role in the evolution of cognition than previously
thought. They theorize about how “industrialization’s rising
cognitive demands, at work and leisure, could in fact be the kind
of widespread (but not necessarily large), steadily changing
environmental factor that could account for the higher IQ scores
across so many nations.” (cont.)
Similarly, a recent
Wired article lays out how biologists are working hard to fuse
understanding of complex social systems and broader evolution.
“[N]ot every scientist thinks that evolution as it’s now
understood and applied is complete,” writes Wired’s Brandon Keim,
“They want to scale it up to the level of populations, even whole
ecosystems. Moreover, they say evolution is intertwined with other
dynamics that science is just starting to understand.”
Both these examples reveal a new push for topsight, or a broader
perspective, enabled by a proliferation of scientific data, better
computing, and new technologies like sensor networks that allow for
the more specific mining of information from the system. The
resulting knowledge will yet again refine our view of the system,
thus bettering our ability to simulate our future and perhaps
turning upside-down our notions of what truly constitutes a human.
In turn, it may exert a profound effect on the assumptions we have
made in regard to concepts like Artificial Intelligence, nature,
technology, singularities, and life itself.
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