Intelligence Development

How has intelligence developed for humans in the past, up to this point in time?

By “intelligence”, I basically mean; ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. And by “developed”, I’m referring to how the function of intelligence has changed and adapted, relative to technology, lifestyle, and humans’ social structures, throughout history.

In my last post; General vs Memory Intelligence, I questioned 2 categories of function of intelligence, and how each type would be more effective, depending on the demanding environment, such as technology and society. It seems that General Intelligence (or GI) should be more effective in an environment involving a lot of new factors and concepts which the person has not learned of or encountered before, since GI requires the ability to incorporate concepts into scenarios involving new factors. Memory Intelligence (or MI) seems more effective in an environment with a lot of information which can be learned through communication, since MI should be more accurate at accessing more specific memories of factors and concepts, but less adaptable to comprehending new combinations of factors.

I’ll categorize the history of humanity into 3 stages of ages, that are relevant to the demand of quantity of factors, and concepts involved in typical human life. Hunter /Gatherer Age, Agriculture Age, and Information Age. It seems there may be 2 aspects relevant to the environment demanding types of intelligence. 1 aspect would be requirement of learning independently, based on tasks of lifestyle, during that time period. Another aspect to take into consideration, would be the total variety of factors and concepts involved in typical life. 

By my theory, in the hunting age and early stages of humanity, at the time before there was agriculture, there would be less information available to learn, and likely be more demand for each person to accomplish a larger variety of tasks to survive. This would seem to give the function of GI, an advantage in adapting to more tasks, since people in this time would have likely moved around and migrated to changing environments, in order to find sufficient food and resources. But, there would also be a lower total variety of factors and concepts. There were fewer material items invented (factors), fewer idealistic concepts which had been thought of or known, and a smaller quantity of people to interact with (as a relevant concept for intelligence to be involved with). Perhaps, in the hunting age, there wouldn't be such a high demand by the environment, for GI, with this lack of total factors incorporated into everyday life. The 1st component of human intelligence, being conscious comprehension, would be beneficial, but the 2nd component required for GI, being the ability to carry concepts to new general situations, may not have been so demanding, with fewer total factors and more repetition of the same concepts.

In the 2nd Age, once agriculture was developed, people were able to settle into societies, with villages, then towns, then cities. Throughout this age, it seems the total quantity of factors and concepts would increase. There would be more inventions, from people having more time to invent, and new problems and obstacles to require inventions. The process of inventing itself, is a very good example of GI, in carrying concepts to new factors. But also, more inventions, means more objects (factors) to take into account in different scenarios in everyday life. In this agriculture age, there would be more requirements to learn independently, and apply concepts to new situations. It seems that people would have more necessity to adapt, and problem solve in a large variety of new circumstances, involving factors which they have not learned of previously. 

In the final age, up to this point in time, of more advanced technology and more integrated society, there has been vast shared information. There has still been an increase in total concepts and factors, with many new inventions, and perhaps even more complex interactions with others in society. But with so many more people on Earth, each individual has less demand to use GI to make inventions themselves, since inventions are widespread much easier, with more integrated society, and an ease of production, and shared information. With so much shared information, the environment has less demand for people to independently carry concepts to new circumstances in a typical lifestyle. Most concepts and details which are required for everyday life, are learned through communication from others. This seems to put a much heavier weight on the practicality of memory. MI seems to allow more accurate recall of details which have been learned through communication. 

In all, my theory seems to be that; in the 1st Hunter Age, the 1st component of human intelligence (conscious comprehension) was developed, but the 2nd component of GI was not significantly demanded by the environment of fewer factors and concepts.
In the 2nd Agriculture Age, GI was much more effective, by demand of an environment of increasing factors and concepts, as well as requirements for a variety of tasks by each individual.
In the 3rd Information Age, the environment has demanded less of a variety of tasks for each individual, with more specialized jobs, and ease of spread of inventions, and aid of technology. MI became more advantageous with the effectivity of accurate memory, to be utilized with vast quantities of information to be learned. From simple intelligence, to GI, to MI, the changes of environments of humanity seem to have a complex influence on; Intelligence Development.

.