MANKIND QUARTERLY 2019 60.2 277-281

Book Review
At Our Wit’s End: Why We’re Becoming Less Intelligent and What it
Means for the Future
Edward Dutton and Michael Woodley of Menie
Imprint Academic, 2018
A previous book by Woodley of Menie, Rhythm of the West (Council for
Social and Economic Studies, 2017), outlined the rise and fall of general
intelligence in the West, extrapolating from historical, behavioral, psychologicaland phenotypic data obtained from Britannics (meaning the British and thosedescended mainly from British colonists overseas). The current book, coauthored with Edward Dutton, reiterates the observation that general intelligenceis currently declining and demonstrates the decline with data that did not appear
in Rhythm of the West. The current book goes further than the previous book,addressing the source of the decline, lucidly spelling out what is in store forwestern civilization if current trends continue unabated and suggests what could
be done to halt or at least retard the decline.
That there is a decline in average intelligence may surprise the casual
observer, as even the most pedestrian member of Western civilization has asmart phone and rudimentary understanding of using a personal computer tobrowse the Internet. Also, though we may not completely understand theunderlying engineering of these devices, it seems that every year their versatility
and complexity increases by several orders of magnitude. Compared to a few
generations ago, more people today have college degrees and many people
today view the natural world in “scientific and analytical” (what the book calls“scientific spectacles”), rather than in supernatural or religious terms. One mayeven raise the point that people today are healthier and wealthier than those ofprevious generations. Therefore, one could argue that intelligence is risinginstead of falling.
As the book points out, however, these observations gloss over key details.
Rather, the authors demonstrate that general intelligence is decreasing and has
been in decline since the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the number of the“macro-innovators” or elite geniuses who are largely responsible for the“significant innovations” in science and technology that have led to fundamental
changes in our lives (e.g. the telephone, vaccines). The overall decline inintelligence and its projected effect on society at large may be surprising, but the277

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authors see the decline in the number of high-IQ geniuses and their never-to-berealized innovations as the bane of Western civilization. The authors express
doubt in even the possibility of maintaining Western civilization in the future at its
current level.
One could point out, however, that IQ test scores, as proxies for intelligence,
have increased over the course of the 20th century in both developed andunderdeveloped countries, commonly cited as the Flynn Effect. To thisobservation, the authors suggest that specific, narrow cognitive skills, rather than
general intelligence, appear to have increased. The authors further point out thatthese narrow cognitive skills are the least-related to general intelligence and mostmalleable to environmental manipulation such as practice. Improvements innutrition and universal education have also helped to increase IQ test scores, but
only on those parts that are least related to innate cognitive ability.
While writers in the past have also noted the gradual decline of intelligenceand hypothesized that this was due to a concurrent decrease in those genetic
alleles that underlie IQ, few, if any, had supporting genetic evidence. 1 With theadvent of large-scale studies that have identified genetic variants associated witheducational attainment, a proxy for intelligence, the authors present such
evidence. The authors note that in the Icelandic population, the frequencies ofgenetic variants that associate with high educational attainment have declined
over a period of 80 years. Citing work with ancient DNA from Bronze Age
Eurasian remains, the authors go further to show that genes associated withhigher IQ had been increasing slowly before starting to decline in the 19th century.
With identification of many genetic variants associated with intelligence, perhaps
ancient DNA from non-European locations would show changes in IQ over timefor each race — have other races undergone similar IQ transitions?
The authors point out declines in macro-innovators and their macroinnovations since the end of the Industrial Revolution as evidence for declines ingeneral intelligence. While the authors demonstrate this using three different
sources, the definition of “macro-innovation” and the distinction between theseand micro-innovation are not entirely clear. It has been noted elsewhere thatmicro-innovations are incremental adjustments to macro-innovations. It is
possible that surveys may have missed macro-innovations that no one butspecialists know about but are nonetheless revolutionary to the field. For
example, it is difficult to argue that new methods of gene editing, such as
1 Itzkoff, S. (1994). The Decline of Intelligence in America. Westport, CT: Praeger. Lynn,R. (1996). Dysgenics. Westport, CT: Praeger.
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BOOK REVIEWCRISPR-Cas, are micro-innovations, refinements of previously available and lessprecise tools used in genetic engineering. They more likely should be considered
to be macro-innovations, with far-ranging implications in the prevention andtreatment of genetically mediated diseases. Whether these tools in current formor with further refinements eventually see widespread use as safe and effective
tools for editing out genetically-mediated disease or to modify physical or
cognitive functions that are significantly genetically mediated is not yet known.
Researchers appear to be reluctant to test this technology on living embryos, sowe will have no idea how safe and effective such technology really is. Would
widespread adaptation of micro-innovations move them to the macro-innovation
category? While intriguing, the decline in macro-innovations and geniuses would
be a highly subjective measure.
The current book is replete with data and concepts that may be familiar toreaders of Mankind Quarterly, but is written in a style approachable also for those
not familiar with topics such as evolutionary genetics and theories of personality.
While the book presents data demonstrating declining general intelligence thatprovokes considerable reflection, what is striking for the current reviewer are thetangible examples which provoke further consideration. One fascinating example
is the demise of the Concorde. The Concorde supersonic airliner made it possible
to fly between London and New York in only three-and-a-half hours, far shorter
than the usual eight hours. While Concorde ridership was limited to the very
wealthy, it was nonetheless a “major breakthrough”, as the authors put it, andwas not merely a “minor update to existing technology” (micro-innovation).
Following the grounding of the Concorde in 2003, no commercial supersonictransportation has taken its place; there has not been any improvement in theduration of intercontinental flights. The authors suggest that the main reason forthis is that we no longer have the cognitive ability to create and maintaincommercial supersonic flights.
Furthermore, the authors point out that what ultimately led to the demise of
the Concorde was “incompetence” (or more bluntly, stupidity). What led to thespectacular 2000 Air France Concorde disaster that killed all on board and four
people on the ground was a piece of make-shift repair on an aircraft that preceded
the Concorde which fell onto the runway. Prior to this disaster, there were no fatal
Concorde accidents. The technology itself, the authors point out, worked for 30
years. A more recent example of possible “incompetence” could be the groundingof all of Boeing 737 Max. 2 Indeed, given how much redundancies are built into
2 “Boeing 737 MAX crashed after system forced its nose down ‘uncommanded’, Ethiopiasays” http://time.com/5564224/ethiopia-boeing-737-max-crash-report/ “After two fatal279

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complex systems, one wonders how much of today’s apparent failures oftechnology are in fact due to uncomprehending operators rather than a failure of
the technology itself.
The book’s overall message, that the West will fail due to its own success,should be remembered upon reviewing current events, particularly the politicalturmoil in the US. As intelligence in post-industrial humans is in decline, assuggested by recent studies in European countries, there appears to be greater
adoption of “anti-rational ideologies” such as nationalism, described in the bookas the romanticization of “folk culture” and an appeal to live in groups “bound byshared blood, soil, language and history”. At the same time, the presumably more
intelligent, the cognitive elite, as Charles Murray called them, 3 are also afflictedby anti-rational ideologies such as the notion that biological reality can be ignored
while expecting, even demanding, equal outcomes in every aspect of life. The
foolish and highly divisive idea is that everyone is equally capable were it not for“racism” and “sexism”, which need to be suppressed using old-fashioned
totalitarian methods pioneered by the likes of Hitler and Stalin. Indeed, theauthors foresee more extremist thinking of this kind on the part of the sociopolitical elites over time. The reader is left wondering how anti-rational ideologies
managed to latch onto Western people with their “scientific spectacles”.
In the field of behavioral genetics, for example, there is still resistance against
attempts to elaborate the relationship between genes and behavior; and legal
restrictions on human germline genetic engineering are still universal although
this technology can greatly advance individual health and, more broadly, the wellbeing of humanity. Most Westerners, influenced either by traditional religious
ideas (especially Americans) or by postmodern, anti-rational ideologies(especially the educated), disapprove of the notion of genetically modifying
embryos to improve physical and intellectual functioning, although genetic
modification would be alright for the purpose of eliminating genetic disorders. 4
Western quasi-religious and metaphysical hand wringing over embryo
selection and genetic screening have yet to appear in China. 5 Indeed, theBoeing plane crashes, the world turned on the US” https://www.cnbc.com/
2019/03/17/two-boeing-737-fatal-plane-crashes-the-world-turns-on-the-faa.html
3 Herrnstein, R. & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve, NY, NY: Free Press.
4 Pew Research Center, July 2018, “Public views of gene editing for babies depend on
how it would be used.” www.pewresearch.org.
5 “China’s embrace of embryo selection raises thorny questions” (August 16, 2017).
https://www.nature.com/news/china-s-embrace-of-embryo-selection-raises-thornyquestions-1.22468. “China’s genetically edited twins may have enhanced brains ‘byaccident’,” https://nextshark.com/chinese-gene-edited-babies-brain/. Israeli health280

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People’s Republic of China, which is facing an increasing population of elderlywith an overall decline in population, appears to have thought in generationalterms with respect to preserving and improving its germ line. The Chinese
government is promoting the use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and in vitro
fertilization to its citizens and encouraging its scientists to improve upon Western
genetic innovations. By contrast, other East Asian countries that are also facing
aging and shrinking populations are being shamed into following the West’s leadand import as many genetically distinct peoples as possible, lest they be called“racist”. 6 The current book points out that the ongoing importation of nonWesterners into Western countries, an almost inevitable response to intractable
sub-replacement fertility, is in fact a key factor in declining levels of intelligence inWestern countries. It is conceivable that a similar reduction in intelligence willoccur, or is underway, in some East Asian countries as well. In any event, it
seems that some but not all East Asian countries understand the root of theproblem as outlined by the current book.
Whether East Asian countries will follow the path of decline as outlined by
Dutton and Woodley of Menie is unknown. A key difference between East Asiancountries and Western European countries is their historically shallow rooting inwestern liberal democracy, from which individualist and egalitarian ideologies
originated, displacing bonds of kinship and in-group cooperation. It is possiblethat these two characteristics, kinship and in-group cooperation, could haveimportant roles in shaping East Asia’s response to their own decline and their rolein a world with the West in decline.

Aldric Hama

insurance covers “pre-embryo” screening as well as in vitro fertilization:
https://www.health.gov.il/English/Topics/fertility/Pages/ivf.aspx
6“Immigration the solution to Japan’s population problem,” https://www.
eastasiaforum.org/2017/10/26/immigration-the-solution-to-japans-populationproblem/. “Multiracial Korea as solution to population decline,” https://www.
koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2018/11/356_257820.html
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