Steven, on your last point - exactly! I never suggest it was purely about the "rich" within developed countries. What would happen to third world countries if all developed countries adopted such technology as standard?

One way another, we are going to be entering some very dangerous territory this century, probably within my lifetime (I'm hoping to make it to 2050).

Ah, Steven, as provocative as ever.

You really want us to start using our "little grey cells" ...? Human IQ has fascinated me also. I am not a neuroscientist, so I contacted those on an "Evolution versus Creationism" forum. This forum is extremely active and sometimes volatile - people have been known to be suspended even banned. But, no subject is taboo as long as it stays within the paramaters of this forum.

I wanted to know how the human brain evolved from our closest primate - incidentally, I am NOT a creationist ... I was told that what is known about the human brain is relatively quite little. The forum has many specialised scientists on board, and I have no doubt that your questions would have them exploring and debating the issue. The forum, which addresses many, many topics - even monogamy in marriage - is:
http://www.evcforum.net

However, I digress ... I noticed an small piece in the press which stated that crows have been found to have an IQ similar to primates - thus brain size doesn't seem to equal IQ. As I knew that there was quite a lot of evidence of crow IQ, I contacted a biologist, Dave Ziolkowski Jr. (Biologist, Information Specialist), who responded:

"Avian intelligence, and intelligence as a whole for that matter, is an especially interesting topic for scientists. Like most things, the perception of intelligence in the general public is often very different from that of the scientific community. That said, an important key here is in recognizing how "intelligence" is defined since, like the word "theory", folks can be talking about very different things while using the same terms. Further, there exists a time lag between the scientific and popular communities whereby scientific findings take time to root in the general public but, often, once they have done so, they tend to have staying power in the face of new scientific findings.

cont ...

For instance, as was customary at the time, early behaviorists worked within the pretense that primate reasoning was the pinnacle of intelligence and therefore that primates were the appropriate reference standard from which to compare the cognitive behavior and related neuroanatomical structuring in other organisms. While this anthropocentric assumption may still persist in the public conscience, it's now largely absent in the portion of the scientific community that studies intelligence, replaced instead by multidimensional views more inclusive of our understanding of how the natural world works.

Birds are a great example since groups like corvids (the jays and crows) and parrots employ problem solving skills similar to those seen in primates, however (according to work by neurologist Stanley Cobb in the 1960's), this 'intelligence' originates in the hyperstriatum portion of the brain (as opposed to the cortex - as in primates). "

Incidentally, Steven, if genetic material was added to my brain and I became a devoted, hardworking housewife continually scrubbing things, I would NOT consider that a plus ... !

I suspect I have diverged from your original topic, for which I apologise. I don't think aborting foetuses with a sub-optimal genome would make a difference to the occurrence of such conditions. Those born displaying such problems do not as a rule reproduce anyway. The genome is passed on by the parent who does not display sub-optimal problems. The only way this could be eradicated is for such people not to have children at all.

Whilst Down's Syndrome is related to age in the mother, I believe that scientists are now saying that schizophrenia - in some cases - is related to the age of the father at the conception.

Increasing the average humans intelligence will only have short term effect on the overall progress of the human race. Since singularity is approaching any usefulness found in the advancing of human intelligence will be quickly surpassed by the intelligence of computers.

Therefore we should aim to not necessarily increase our intelligence but we should instead aim to increase our ability to be satisfied with life and find more pleasure in tbe overall experience that we call living.

I think in the long run people would much rather be super happy then super smart!

Good points Danielle, though I'm sure it would be a plus to enjoy, or do quicker, work that won't otherwise disappear. Or you could use your new powers to earn enough to pay someone else to do it.

I don't think brain size is the greatest factor with regard to intelligence. It's all about the connections within, and the ongoing maintainence/upgrading thereof. If we take IQ as a definative measure(emphasis on if) we already have a huge range within our current brain size.

An elephants brain is about 5 times larger than ours, so size isn't necessarily the be all and end all.

Taking a slightly different slant on the breeding/hereditary aspect, if education and intelligence lead to lower birth rates, does this mean our overall population IQ is being diluted by the ongoing family expansion of the undereducated or those of lower intelligence? Some european studies show population IQ peaked 10 years ago. "The Flynn effect in Reverse

EasyTimes and rojo - interesting points.

I am not computer literate ... but don’t computers have to be programmed by people ... and can’t this, in itself, lead to anomolies in computer intelligence.

Undoubtedly, people in general don’t use their intelligence to their maximum ability. We have all witnessed people whose curiosity outside their immediate environment is virtually non-existent, yet their ability to recall every detail of a football game played thirty some years ago, or knowledge about every car on the road, is spectacular. One look at a display of women’s magazines would lead to the impression that women have brains the size of a pea rattling round in a pumpkin. Then there are other people who suffer from “confirmation bias” - they only accept what conforms with their already rigid belief system - whether in politics, religion, etc ...

So what is it that makes individuals have a passion for enquiry and knowledge which, is to me, a hall-mark of high IQ?

I have seen someone considered below average in IQ do well just be sheer application and passion for their subject. The person may have taken longer to “get there”, but they did and very successfully. I also know an academic whose wife pins a small note with a different day of the week on each of his shirts, so he will know which to wear (and “no”, this is not for colour co-ordination) when packing for him going to conferences.

cont ...