What is intelligence? This may sound like a straightforward question with a straightforward answer — the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a capacity to understand” — but that definition itself raises an increasingly relevant question in the modern world. What happens if the extent to which we can practically apply that capacity is diminishing? Evidence is mounting that something exactly like this has been happening to the human intellect over the past decade or so.
什么是智力?這聽起來像是一個有著簡單答案的簡單問題——《牛津英語詞典》(Oxford English Dictionary)將其定義為“理解的能力”——但這個定義本身在現代世界中引發了一個越來越相關的問題。如果我們實際應用這種能力的程度正在減弱,會發生什么?越來越多的證據表明,在過去十年左右的時間里,人類智力正經歷著這樣的變化。