Topic: Is the human race getting more knowledgeable but losing wisdom ? (Read 260 times)

Just remember: half of the people out there have below average intelligence. On top of that, if you happen to have above average intelligence the effect is that you may not even be able to speak with them coherently, but don´t loose faith, there are other humans out there.

As an addendum to this, the problem now is that the internet allows all these idiots to find each other. Before, a village idiot was shunned by everyone in the village, and ended up keeping their nonsense to themselves (example: Flat Earthers). Now, the idiot can use their digital soap box to attract all the other idiots from across the world, and they end up enabling and empowering each other. These idiots, in some cases, end up with the loudest voice, because as you say, actual scientists are spending years properly writing up their findings, rather than just spewing nonsense on the internet. Social media is the worst for this, as people follow pages/join groups/make connections/etc predominantly with those who share their worldview, and can even moderate their communities to actively exclude any contradicting opinions or facts.

Accessibility of information is pretty involved with your ideas which I completely agree with. Anyone can go watch a youtube video or read a wikipedia page, and suddenly they are an expert on something or other. Its not entirely a bad thing, its really fortunate that people have free access to information, but it really does increase arrogance. The experts that graduated from Khan Academy are the ones that perpetuate false ideas. We value the freedom to speak our minds too much to tell people they need to shut up because they are wrong. Somehow if you do tell them to shut up because they are wrong, that validates their ideas because as a figure of authority, silencing others is a sign of defensiveness.  

I don't think that we are losing knowledge or wisdom, I think its just that everyone now has a platform to be heard, and there are more that shouldn't be heard than should. The ramblings of a town drunk can now be seen by millions of people and it only takes a handful to spread along their ideas. Those that know what they are talking about don't bother arguing with the idiots, and the idiots get to loudly and unchecked spread whatever it is that the town drunk rambled.

It might take a research team fifteen years to properly report on their findings regarding a vibration that they found at some remote place caused by who knows what. It takes another guy thirty seconds to make up something about the sun being a flashlight, and there are a lot more guys saying the sun is a flashlight than there are research teams investigating something of potential interest.

I would say we are losing both knowledge and wisdom.

The internet is great, but it has meant that we effectively outsource a lot of our brain power to Google. Instant answers to any question are readily available via a search engine. All you need to know is how to type your question into Google. This does mean that we lose a lot of background understanding and perspective, and with it the ability to see nuance. We don't need to understand a whole topic any more, we can get answers quickly - albeit we won't have the same grasp of the implications of that answer. Coupled with the relentless over-stimulation from 24 hour TV and social media, our attention spans diminish and our thoughts flit about with increased speed but with less depth than I imagine was the case in previous generations.


I do agree with the OP, but I have to be a bit mischievous and suggest that Dunning and Kruger are suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect, as more than 2,000 years ago Socrates (or maybe Plato) came up with the same idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_that_I_know_nothing (yes, I know that Confucius reputedly said something similar, even earlier, but I am going with Socrates because I think he has a more impressive beard).

The simple answer to your question would be yes, we're losing wisdom but yet the vast majority seem not to notice that, as they're confusing knowledge (which can be learnt) for wisdom (which comes with experience). Let me rephrase it in this manner, "Humans now concentrate on becoming intelligent while neglecting been wise".

Never heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect, (thanks for bringing that up). I just have to say the human race is becoming too dependant, foolish and greedy. We are now, so used to certain type of crime that when it does occurs we considered them usual and a part of our everyday life.


Just like i earlier said, we're becoming too greedy, foolish and also dependant on others for our decision making so what you just said above is as a result of that. Humans are easier influence and as a result of not been left out we tend to follow the crowd and that's the weakness these scam projects are capitalizing on. Selfishness also plays a role in this that's why you can see people promoting clear scams for few bitcoin. Humans now, only care about themselves.

Life itself is just a circle, things don't really changes is just gets rebranded. All you have said are true and accurate but you forgot to ask the most important question, how do we get oourselves back on track, how do we resolve this issue you just pointed out. That's what I'm interested in.

Is the sheer amount of information that we are bombarded with actually dumbing us down or making us less decisive?

Everyone has heard the popular sayings:

A wise man never knows all. A fool knows everything.
Don't argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

It is really just a phrase relating to the the Dunning-Kruger effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the inability for someone to understand their own incompetence.

As the world is getting more complex in the industrial revolution I wonder whether knowledge is increasing but wisdom is decreasing.

While we understand more of what is happening around us - medical knowledge, technology and science knowledge has all improved.

But it is the application of that knowledge that has me worried.

We are polluting the planet more than ever and our population is ever increasing.

While medical knowledge and skill has increased people are increasingly falling for pseudo scientific quackery and outright scams.

Blockchain technology and crypto have the ability to improve everyones lives.

But the majority of the "noise" on the forum appears to be hype, scams and poor quality ICOs with a lot of users that know very little about the technology they are using and are vulnerable to re-invented old scams.

While "official" crime statistics show no dramatic increase - it is only because people are no longer reporting certain crimes. If I look at my email inboxes I receive numerous daily attempts to scam and weekly scam calls on my phone.

People got away from slavery and serfdom. Yet now the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing again.

People fought for privacy and personal freedom and are now giving it away for free on social media.

Are we as a population becoming less wise while simultaneously being bombarded with more information. ?