Experiments with psychedelic drugs have given mixed results, but there does appear to be a definite achievement of greater heights of creativity with their use. A group of architects given LSD under controlled conditions generated far more and better solutions to a design problem, as determined by a group of independent judges.⁴²

It has also been recognized by many people that the pace at which humankind is presently gaining new knowledge is increasing at a non-linear rate. We have been doubling the amount of new information accumulated every seven to ten years. This represents an exponential curve similar to others which have already been discussed.

Julian Jaynes, a psychology professor at Princeton University, wrote a controversial book, published in 1976, entitled The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, in which he argues that humankind first achieved consciousness late in the second millennium B.C. While he was severely criticized by some, and though I don't accept his conclusion either, his case has much merit if one modifies the position somewhat to state that he has recognized a not-so-subtle, definite increase in humankind's overall level of consciousness. If people read his book with this latter premise in mind, I would speculate that many would conclude he has discovered good evidence that humankind's level of consciousness did undergo a change within that period.

The very rapid increase in human population over the past several thousand years would be additional evidence of an overall increase in intelligence. Humankind's population changed quite gradually for many millennia. Then it began a relatively rapid rise that could reflect an increasing ability to master and control the environment as well as all aspects of existence.

Abraham Maslow, past president of the American Psychological Association, and one of the leading spokesmen for humanistic psychology, identified a group of individuals that he referred to as the "growing tip." These represent self-actualizing people who appear to be better integrated, more fully functioning, and who have a greater overall awareness of the needs of humankind and become actively involved in its betterment. These self-actualizing individuals are at least in part the result of peak experiences. Maslow saw them as an evolutionary product at the upper end of the human spectrum, and as being and becoming the best of what is potentially achievable at our present level of development. I believe this group manifests the highest level of evolutionary development within humankind and that it is an example of the continuation of the evolutionary process.⁴³

One of the most compelling arguments that intelligence is increasing non-linearly and even exponentially is based on the mathematical relationship already presented as derived by Shannon.

H + I = constant = H_max = I_max

Since all entropic processes are occurring at an exponential rate, this would suggest that the accumulation of information within any system is also occurring exponentially. As energy in a system is dissipated through entropy, the system would appear to be gaining in information as it becomes more complex. Virtually every open system which has been identified within our universe seems to be gaining in information. Therefore since intelligence of any organism or system is directly proportional to its information content, and if information is accumulating exponentially, so should be intelligence.

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