# IF we all started getting stupider, would anyone notice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2002, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790 "2002-12-01T17:31:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790/21 "2002-12-15T19:15:55Z")
As I get older, I notice my inability to remember as well I could when younger. Wouldn’t a similar effect take place with IQ? Aren’t we ‘smart’ enough to notice we were getting less so? ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790/22 "2002-12-15T19:36:32Z")
Yes, we would notice that there is much we used to be able to do but cannot now. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790/23 "2002-12-15T19:57:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*It looks to me from sx633’s description of the novel in his post that it’s closer to _Brain Wave_ (which is about Earth moving into and out of a region of space that inhibits intelligence) rather than _IQ 83_ (which is about changing intelligence by messing with DNA). \*\* I think so too, but the pattern of change was the reverse. In [Brainwave](http://www.rosettabooks.com/pages/title_96.html) everyone got smarter, not stupider. ---
**Author:** ![I\_am\_Sparticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@I\_am\_Sparticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_am_Sparticus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790/24 "2002-12-15T20:41:44Z")
This is the first mention of it here on the SdMB. I hadn’t noticed anything. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790/25 "2002-12-16T01:29:42Z")
Well, if people started losing IQ points there would be a point when the average person could not use everyday tools. That would be pretty obvious. Imagine what an average adult from 100 years ago would do with a car or a computer. (Heck, I did tech support and there are some people who cannot figure out computers today) On the story front Stephen King wrote a great short story on this. I think it was “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” but I could be wrong. Spoilers… IIRC, some guy finds that water in a little Texas town makes all the people in the town really nice. There is no violence. He tracks down the element in the water that makes everyone so happy. He manufactures it and spreads it across the globe. At the end he realizes that it also makes everyone really stupid. The story is written as a diary and towards the end the writing in the ‘diary’ starts to fall apart. Great story. Slee [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-we-all-started-getting-stupider-would-anyone-notice/139790.md?page=1)