Humans: Mammals or Virus?

Because of the scattered nature of the internet, it has created an environment where the brain is neurologically changing and physically losing the cognitive brain function.

The third part to the human dilemma is that all nonhuman species have evolved to survive their physical habitats, and the human species originally evolved to do this as well. However, human beings have altered the world more in the last ten thousand years, than the ancestors did in the first four million years. We have changed the environment to fit our needs, instead of changing our needs to fit the environment. Most importantly, humans have built entirely new environments, such as farms, villages, cities and towns. The cycling pattern of human expansion and creations has changed the human race from small groups of hunters and gatherers, into a very complex civilization.

Stephen Jay Gould, a paleontologist and evolutionary scientist, in his essay “Women’s Brains” (1980), argues that previous claims about the intellectual superiority of men over women are based on misinterpreted experimental results and therefore hold no scientific significance.

I believe that as technology improves the human brain improves to create more things. In “Smarter than You Think” the author Clive Thompson believes that technology and humans have equal intelligence. Humans are so reliant on technology to the fact that we are constantly improving on them. Since the development of technology information has been easier to obtain and hold inside our brains. While technology is getting more complex, the human brain is also getting more complex in order to continually create new and better gear.

Are Americans getting dumber? In the age of 24-hour News cycle and reality TV celebrities turn presidential candidates it would appear so. In fact, author Susan Jacoby wrote a popular editorial for the Washington post in 2008 called How Dumb Can We Get? Claiming that Americans are, well, getting dumber. Jacoby attributes the problem, one she calls anti-intellectualism, to the increased integration of technology into our everyday lives. However, before we heed the message of Susan Jacoby and brush up on our celestial navigation and nephology, let's consider a few things.

As an anthropologist, it was Broca’s job to study the human species. He collected information for years trying to answer the questions on everyone's mind in the 1800’s, what gender is smarter, therefore superior? Broca studied brain sizes to answer that question do to the fact that humans were declared the smartest species because we have bigger brains than animals. Broca declared that women “had smaller brains than men and, therefore, could not equal them in intelligence,” however, I would like to argue that. According to Women's Brains By Stephen Jay Gould, Broca’’s data was inconsistent. He used 292 male brains but only 140 female brains. He did not take in consideration weight, heath, height nor age into his observations, all facts that

The prefrontal cortex, which is the anterior part of the frontal lobes, controls understanding consequences, impulse control, abstract thinking, long range planning, and mental flexibility (Ortiz 93-94). Researchers at UCLA, Harvard Medical School, and the National Institute of Health have been working together to understand brain development. Their research has shown that at a young age the brain overproduces gray matter, which is the overall thinking part of the brain. After this comes the pruning process in which gray matter is removed. Paul Thompson from UCLA describes this time as a "massive loss of brain tissue" (as quoted in Ortiz 94). The average amount of tissue lost per year is one to two percent (Ortiz 94). While this pruning process is taking place the myelination is occurring simultaneously. Myelination is when white matter, what insulates the brain, makes brain process more efficient. This process is also thought to shape brains neural connections for adulthood (Ortiz 95). With age, the brain becomes denser and more organized which makes it better at processing and understanding information. Changes in the brain also can happen late into the twenty's (Beckman 3). A member of the UCLA research team reported that "[The] frontal lobe undergoes the most change during adolescence-by far. It is also the last part of the brain development" (as quoted in Ortiz 94). For most, full brain development is reached during the ages

The younger generation of Americans, those under the age of thirty, are often criticized as being the “dumbest generation”. Many Americans blame technology for making “goods so plentiful, schooling so accessible, diversion so easy, and liberties so copious” (Bauerlein). Many are posing the question: Is the increasing ease in life causing our intelligence to slip? Those under thirty are not the dumbest generation, in fact, technology is expanding, changing, and pushing in new directions intelligence and mental capacity.

Throughout the course of history, humans have made great technological advancements. During the Renaissance, the printing press had revolutionized all of Europe; the accessibility of books had become universal, and people learned how to read and write. Because of the printing press, people became smarter and humanity had made a huge advancement into the modern world. In the 21st century, however, there is a growing issue; even though humans are becoming smarter, the human brain has suffered a negative impact from the internet. In the book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," by Nicholas Carr, Carr discusses how the internet completely changes the way people think. Because of the internet, our ability to think deeply,

There has to be a line draw somewhere and that might be it. Improving the brain abilities may be something that everyone wants but the consequences is something that people should consider. The greatest invention is the smartphone: everything you need in the palm of your hand. One advantage to the smartphone was the ability to program into the phone birthdays, phone numbers, important dates and etc. We longer have to think twice about these things the phone will alert you when needed. The famous saying is use it or lose it. I can google anything my heart desires and it is there with the touch of a button. However, with the information being so readily available I don’t have to work to obtain it and I typically loose the information shortly after viewing it. Since, I don’t have to do extensive research that information doesn’t stick in my brain. It is harming or stopping the learning process. In the end it is causing

An ignorant thing to say is “forget the old and focus on the new.” Civilization has set forth the belief that when something is old and non-civilized, then it has no use. Nowadays, human beings are looking for modern and industrialized ways to teach themselves or get information into the brain without focusing on the brain itself. It is true that the human brain has greatly evolved to the point where human beings can produce all kinds of machines, but at the same time, they still rely on the primitive brain to make basic decisions like eating or sleeping. The primitive brain is at the lowest part of the brain, just above the spinal cord, and its functions is to regulate vital body functions such respiration and it also sends sensory information

Since our existence, humans have become smarter through evolution. Advances in technologies allow us to discover new ideas through science and other methods, allowing us to be smarter. However, these advances may also become harmful in the present and possibly the future. New technologies such as cell phones and computers have made life much simpler, but has also taken away the need for critical thinking. Instead of books and newspapers, all we really need is a metal brick and a few taps to get all the information we ever needed in our lives. This represents the current generations, such as the Millennials and Generation Z. The newest generation is the dumbest generation because of how they are very inept and ignorant.

Are we to busy searching the web to realize how dumb we are becoming? We live in the age of technology, where there is easy access to the Internet. Nicholas Carr, the author of “Does the Internet Make you Dumber?” stated a good question that is relevant to our generation. Since we have easy access to the Internet, it is making us dumber instead of smarter. I believe individuals have taken advantage of the Internet and it is costing them their thinking skills. Sometimes individual don’t realize the impact that the internet has on our brain and education. The author states that the internet comes with distractions, many information, and it models our brains.

The nineteenth century saw the start of the scientific debate in which brain size was presumed to indicate intelligence. Which in turn lead some scientists to the conclusion that men, having on average a larger brain size than women, may be more intelligent.

Humans have existed on Earth for approximately 3.4 million years. The oldest known human ancestor is "Lucy," an Australopithecus. Over this extensive period of time, humans have evolved significantly. Homo Sapiens have grown from 3 to almost 6 feet (average), lost most of the body hair, became leaner and adapted to walking. Humans have come a long way, from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens, from living in trees to living in cities. Slowly, through hundreds of thousands of years, we mutated over and over again, natural selection ensuring that no destructive mutations continue. From the slow evolution, four distinctive species emerged and died out, each giving way to its ' descendant: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalesis, and Homo sapiens Sapiens.