Is a highly-evolved ‘supermind’ the stuff of science fiction?
Humans cannot achieve greater mental functions – such as attention, memory, or intelligence – without trade-offs elsewhere, according to research by the University of Warwick.
Researchers wanted to know why we are not getting smarter than we are given the adaptive evolutionary process. Their findings suggested that for every gain in cognitive functions, there is a price to pay elsewhere.
For instance, among individuals with enhanced cognitive abilities – such as savants, people with photographic memories, and even genetically segregated populations of individuals with above average IQ – these individuals often suffer from related disorders, such as autism, debilitating synaesthesia, and neural disorders linked with enhanced brain growth.
Also included in the research was the use of drugs like Ritalin, which only help people with lower attention spans, whereas people who don’t have trouble focusing can actually perform worse when they take attention-enhancing drugs.
University of Warwick psychology researcher Thomas Hills said: “If you enhance your ability to focus too much, and end up over-focusing on specific details, like the driver trying to hide in your blind spot, then you may fail to see another driver suddenly veering into your lane from the other direction.”
The research, entitled ‘Why Aren’t We Smarter Already: Evolutionary Trade-Offs and Cognitive Enhancements,’ is published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
