"Any simple major enhancement to human intelligence is a net evolutionary disadvantage."
--Eliezer Yudkowsky, Algernon's Law
Named after
Algernon, the mouse from the novel
Flowers for Algernon, written by
Daniel Keyes Moran, states that human
intelligence is at its optimal level. Not maximal, but optimal for our survival. If the human race would benefit from a higher intelligence,
evolution would already have given us that. The negative
side-effects of a higher intelligence might be visible and easily understandable - the difference between the 'smart' and the 'stupids' might make social interaction difficult - or hidden somewhere in some master thesis in
neurology not yet written, like the
causality between poor
Algernon's superior intellect and its accompanying
flaw.