by G E Barr

Created on: December 05, 2009   Last Updated: December 06, 2009

The Intellectual Evolution

Some of us are really that much smarter than our ancestors. And that is as it should be. My grandfather's grandfather was a practicing, licensed physician, but I can promise you that he knew nothing of the Ultra Sound. He was a smart man for his time. This is not his time.

I often think about intellectual evolution and how it occurs. I mean, we have Charles Darwin in the late 1800's, just becoming enlightened to his theory of evolution and 2000 years earlier, we have a man called Aristotle, who actually wrote the book on western thought. Aristotle was so highly advanced for his time, that it almost seems he could've been a myth. Incredibly brilliant fellow, that Aristotle.

I often think of Da Vinci. Sitting there sketching helicopters. In the late 1400's.

The scientific advances made just over the past 100 years has been phenomenal. It wasn't all that long ago that bleeding patients was thought to rid them of whatever ailed them. Today, we know that virus' evolve and they evolve quickly. We can even predict flu strains.

Technologically, since 1950, we have done amazing things. From the television to the toaster to the computer to laser surgery, we've come along way with innovation and improvement of life.

Socially, politically and in familial terms, we have not done so well. There are many societal problems. Issues which need to be addressed which so many have thrown up their hands at.

Prison rescidivism is a big problem. People being born and raised in acidic environments without parents who love them, aimlessly going at life. People creating life, as though they are animals, children being left to tend for themselves.

Personally, I don't think the ancestors were any better or smarter as parents. I think that each life cycle has it's circumstances to deal with.

Clearly, in terms of science and technology, we are light years ahead of the ancestors. But there are now sociological issues. Ethical issues. Political and cultural issues. There is a greater amount of diversity and expectancy for tolerance.

Where my grandfather only had to know how to get along with his wife and a handful of pastoral buddies, I must know various cultures. I must know languages. I must know geographical elements.

We really are smarter than our ancestors, by necessity. Technology grows in leaps and bounds every year. There's always something new to know.

Both survival and evolution demands that we are smarter.

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