[escepticos] Intelligence seen in decline within 100 years

["carlitos" <180807@...>]

Hola, hola.

Para que sepais lo que se dice por ahi (yo ni entro ni salgo):

Intelligence seen in decline within 100 years
            By Patricia Reaney
            BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Intelligence has increased
worldwide for decades but differences in population growth could
reverse the trend within the next 100 years, a British psychologist
said Friday.
            Professor Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster in
Northern Ireland told the annual conference of The British
Psychological Society that a decline in population growth in the
developed world could lead to a drop in intelligence.
            ``The genetic component for higher intelligence is being
passed on to fewer children,'' he told a news conference.
            Scores on intelligence tests have risen an average three
points a decade since the 1930s so the average IQ of children today is
7.5 points higher than their parents and 15 points above what their
grandparents would have achieved.
            Environmental components, particularly diet, are mainly
responsible for the increase.
            ``Improvement in diet is far and away the most important
factor for this rise in intelligence,'' Lynn said.
            But as environmental factors have improved, the genetic
factor for intelligence has decreased because people of high
intelligence are having fewer children.
            ``Environmental improvement is more powerful than the
genetic deterioration and overwhelms it,'' said Lynn,
            Studies in the United States and Britain have shown that  
          as measured intelligence has increased, genetic 
intelligence has deteriorated by between one-half to two-thirds of an 
IQ point per generation.
            Lynn said eventually -- probably within the next 30 to 100
years -- as population growth rises in the developing world and
decreases elsewhere, genetic deterioration will outweigh any
environmental improvement and overall intelligence will fall.
            ``The genes for higher intelligence aren't being passed on
to the next generation because people of higher intelligence are
having fewer children,'' he explained.
            Lynn said advancements in genetic engineering could be    
        used to offset any fall in intelligence but warned that it 
could be abused to produce children of vastly enhanced intelligence.
         ^REUTERS en 

Saludos, Carlos Ungil