h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Would you say that the proportion of stupid people to smart people has gotten larger, as well?

It has to. If brains do not any longer contribute to "number of offspring surviving to reproductive age", the maths dictates a fall in average intelligence arising from several different causes. Unfortunatley this is irreversible without the intervention of a catastrophe, so that's our future, that or worse. We have just got to get used to it.

Evolution got us here, but not by being nice.

I think in the furture, humans will look upon the people of this age as scholarly and geniuses.

I'm not sure. There are other ways of becoming smart than being born smart. Education could work if well designed.

Looking at all the nice sciency books in the room I'm in, I'd say school just gets in the way of my education. I have no time to actually learn anything.

Botox. You can always learn, wherever you are.

Okay, maybe I just spend too much time on the internet. But if, instead of school, I could just have math and the socializing time, being free to read or write anything in the rest of the time, I would get a pretty darn good education, I think.

Not so. Maths is one, but not the only, necessary thing that doesn't come naturally, i.e. must be learnt with effort. Grammar, physics, statistics and economics are others.

This is me I'm talking about; I can teach myself anything easily except math, now that I've gone through 8 grades. With sufficient motivation, I could give myself a college-level education while just going between home and downtown (bookstores and library). (I think so, anyway...) At any rate, homework effectively prevents me from teaching myself very much at all.