When an American academic argued a decade ago that ancient Greeks and other people at the time were smarter than us, a heated debate erupted among scientists.
In two articles published in the journal Trends in Genetics in 2013, Gerald Crabtree, a geneticist at Stanford University in California, laid out what might be called a speculative theory of human intelligence. It is, he admitted at the time, an idea that needs testing, and one that he would happily see proved wrong.
Crabtree argued the ancient Greeks were likely more intelligent than modern humans. Crabtree had conducted research which he said indicates that humans, with time, become less intelligent.
The argument that ancient Greeks were smarter than us
The American scientist said that some inevitable changes in our genetic system, combined with technological developments, led us to turn into a mutilated body of our former substance, much less intelligent than our ancestors.
Crabtree alleges that the human being was in his prime when he was forced to fight with all his strength to survive, as he was obliged to rely on his memory, in his practical esprit and psychological balance that allowed him to trust his instinct and adapt easily to different circumstances.
As Crabtree explained in the journal: “A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his or her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate. Extreme selection is a thing of the past.
“I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues,” he said.
He added “I would guess that he or she would be among the most emotionally stable of our friends and colleagues. I would also make this wager for the ancient inhabitants of Africa, Asia, India or the Americas, of perhaps 2000–6000 years ago.
The scientist drew on recent studies to estimate a figure for the number of genes that play a role in human intellectual ability, and the number of new mutations that harm those genes each generation.
He settled on a suite of 2,000 to 5,000 genes as the basis for human intelligence and calculated that among those, each of us carries two or more mutations that arose in the past 3,000 years, or 120 generations.
All of this leads to the conclusion that humans reached our intellectual height in the dim and distant past. “We, as a species, are surprisingly intellectually fragile and perhaps reached a peak 2,000 to 6,000 years ago,” Crabtree writes.
“If selection is only slightly relaxed, one would still conclude that nearly all of us are compromised compared to our ancient ancestors of 3,000 to 6,000 years ago,” he added.
Critics
Gerald Crabtree’s hypothesis that ancient Greeks were intellectually superior to modern humans has faced substantial criticism.
Critics say that intelligence is a complex construct, and comparing it across different eras presents significant challenges. There was no standardized method to quantify intelligence in ancient times.
Some add that outstanding figures like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are disproportionately remembered, creating a biased perception of average intelligence in that era.
Ancient Greek society placed a strong emphasis on philosophy, rhetoric, and mathematics. This cultural focus might have contributed to the development of exceptional thinkers, rather than indicating a general population with higher intelligence.
