What if humans were twice as intelligent? - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com:
Would it be a blessing or a curse?
"Experiencing the world with a higher IQ might be more interesting for most people. They might enjoy reading more, might have a greater depth of appreciation for certain things and more insight into life," said Richard Haier, a neuroscientist and professor emeritus at the University of California at Irvine who studies intelligence.
"Intelligence is independent of personality and emotion, so you can have very intelligent people who are also just kind of crazy people," Haier said. "Even if everyone had an IQ of 200, you'd have exactly the same range of personalities as you have now, and because that's a determining factor in how good your society is, you won't necessarily have a better society."
But it comes with a warning: "The evil corporate villains would be smarter than ever, but so would the government officials who were writing and enforcing the safety regulations! Who would win? Who knows?" he wrote.
I think the good outweighs the bad. Think of how politics would be changed by a better educated constituency. What about the effect on science? Or crime. One good point made by Natalie Wolchover is that there will likely be a distinction between the haves and the have-nots.
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