Are we at the pinnacle of intelligence?

Most of what can be said has already been done by someone else. Technology is improving at a rapid rate, but it is bound to hit a stopping point at some time. It just seems like their is nothing new left except for what imaginative book writers posed about truly intelligent civilizations. I wonder if any truly new and advance technology will ever appear or if we are to spend the next 300 years failing to outdo what we have already made.

 

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We are currently at the height of knowledge, but knowledge is now growing at an exponential rate.

Technology is rapidly advancing. For example;
Human organs can now be farmed. We have the technology for 'designer' babies. Previous poor countries are joining the first world.

 

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I am confused. Your title asks if we are at the pinnacle of intelligence, then you prattle on about technology. Why?

(Note: I am not at all confused, but you certainly are. Do you want to give it a second go? Try harder this time.)

 

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If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.
- Peter Ustinov

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
- Robert Goddard (1882-1945)

It'll Never Work!

 

I would be of the opinion that the pinnacle of intelligence will only be achieved when we are all enlightened beyond hate and greed. The pinnacle of technology will be reached when what we create doesn't destroy.

 

True but that's why people are always asking questions and finding new things to find out about like dark matter, black holes and why people do things differently than the way we think they should as a few examples. There's always going to be new horizons and challenges in the future that we don't know about today but we keep on exploring and pushing the boundaries of intelligence and creativity to understand more about the unknown.

 

Reaching the pinnacle of intelligence does not mean we will run out of new things to discover, new questions to ask, or mysteries to solve.It only means that our capacity of understanding ourselves has reached the point when we are no longer in a state of fear due to our vanity, or internal doubt. When our minds are not bogged down with the trivialities of our daily need to create an acceptable image for ourselves so to fit in to the world of social dysfunction. Society as a whole is too hung up on themselves and appearances to use the full potential of our minds. Or am I overstating?

 

And how could we be at the height of knowledge when all that we know is based upon speculative analysis from a tiny little orb 30,000 lightyears from the center of one of a hundred billion other galaxies. If you've never seen the rain you can't know for sure how it feels to be wet..

 

I did that to distinguish the two from one another. Seeing as technology grows from generation to generation, but intelligence itself is more of an interpersonal abstraction that dies from generation to generation.

 

Why the attitude?

 

We may be at the pinnacle of science funding, but there is still much to discover.

 

Is wisdom one of the dimensions of intelligence?

 

funny

Men seem to have been asking this question every turn of the century. In the 1800s they truly believed there was nothing else to invent or discover.

I think it's a very short-sighted and foolish attitude that too many humans have, because obviously until we know everything then our intelligence will have to keep on improving and growing - and it seems impossible to me that we'll ever know everything there is to know!

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I think it's going to be hard for the next great inventor of idea maker to gain any merit into a scientific community as intelligence has become so broad spectrum not everyone has the ability to be on the same page. That or the idea itself will be so mind boggling-ly simple it sounds too cliche to test. Like if someone were to say they knew how to make a miniature version of the Sun everyone would instantly discount it as impractical, dangerous, or say it's been tried so many times and failed.

science just isn't simple until its effects are reproduced.

 

Meh, knowledge will just be more specialized...and there'll be more needs for generalists who understand a little bit of everything to slap it all together...

As far as inventions go-the proof is always in the pudding.

 

This has been said a million times before for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Humans have been wrong every single time. So, I sincerely doubt that you, a mere Internet peon, are correct on this one.

What would cause you to even consider this as a valid question? The things that allow us to progress are new tools. We either invent the tools or we discover them. With these tools, we have the capability of "welding" two or more distinct ideas or objects into a useful advance. So long as we have the tools available to us, progress won't stop.

 

Obviously my definition of "truly advance technology" differs from yours. To you terra-forming might be considered an impractically advanced technology. I might think speed of light travel is qualified to fill the 300 year position. Who knows, we could be 3,000 years away from backwards time travel while downloading consciousness into a collective pool might be 50 years away. loose the tude, dude.

 

Most of those posting to this Thread seem to be confusing advancing intelligence with advancing technology/knowledge.

Our current level of intelligence seems to be capable of making significant advances in technology & medical science.

The most intelligent humans of today might be as intelligent as any in the future. At our current level of intelligence, there does not seem to be evolutionary pressure to become more intelligent, although there might be evolutionary pressure decreasing the number of the dumber members of the species.

 

Point.
But I think the OP was confusing it as well?

We will soon have the ability to genetically modify our children (not precise enough yet)-will we?

We may soon be able to hook our brains up to a neural network of multiple minds and computers-will we?

Heck-it might be nice to have universal education...