Technology may be getting smarter but humans have been getting less intelligent since Victorian times, according to a controversial study. The research claims that up until 180 years ago, people were getting smarter thanks to natural selection favouring'survival of the sharpest'. The emergence of farming, cities and government would have made it easier for smarter people to get on in life, have more children and pass on their genes more widely. But that trend has now being reversed, researchers in Brussels claim. Genes driving intelligence have become less common since Victorian times, because advances in medicine and nutrition means people with lower IQs can have more children that survive into adulthood.