/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.6290998]

Is Idiocracy becoming reality? Why/why not?

[Anonymous No.6291056]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rational-Optimist-Prosperity-Evolves/dp/0061452068

All your answers right there

[Anonymous No.6291107]

>>6291056
>commercial advertising

[Anonymous No.6291119]

>>6290998
>Is Idiocracy becoming reality? Why/why not?

it's been reality for over a decade. look at who's breeding in the US: welfare recipients.

[Anonymous No.6291159]

Makes me wonder if this is why we haven't seen any space faring aliens or time travelers from the future. When ever a species becomes intelligent enough to do these amazing things, their "evolutionarily baggage" causes them to self-destruct and revert to a way of life more in sync with their evolutionary heritage. We weren't programed for the way of life that humanity has chosen. From birth we are like feral cave men. It is society that teaches us to become respectable human beings as we grow older. Until there is someway to remove the genetic programing for humanities destructive instincts we're reliant on society teach people who to keep our aggressive natures in check.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJ3Tjj40P8

[Anonymous No.6291583]

>>6291159
Sofia Lamb was right. The enemy is the gene.

[Anonymous No.6291588]

I would say the domination of liberal and progressive movements in mainstream culture today is evidence that Idiocracy is not too farfetched

[Anonymous No.6291593]

>idiocracy
>aliens and time travelers
>"the domination of liberals and progressive movements"
is this hell? am i dead?

[Anonymous No.6291594]

>>6291119

[Anonymous No.6291622]

There will always be stupid people. There always has and there always will. I don't think it will happen.

[Anonymous No.6292036]

Brought to you by Carls Jr.™

[Anonymous No.6292061]

>>6291588

I would say the domination in mainstream culture of fat neckbeards with superiority complexes thinking Illuminati Jews from the center of the Earth use liberalism to keep them from being Chad Thundercock millionaires with a harem of bitches is evidence that Idiocracy is not too farfetched.

[kitty !kitty/EnNg No.6292065]

>>6291159
>Makes me wonder if this is why we haven't seen any space faring aliens

it's named the paradox of fermi

well, may be they isolated us and we live in a reserve or they just don't care to visit us, i like that variant more than yours

[Anonymous No.6292137]

>>6292065
>maybe they isolated us and we live in a reserve

What if the planet Earth is in a dyson sphere esque zoo and they watch us for entertainment like the Truman show.

[Anonymous No.6292150]

>>6291622
Pretty much this. When I first saw idiocracy I thought it was possible, but now I realize there's always going to be stupid people and there will always be smart people. We're getting to the point where pretty soon, relatively speaking, we'll be able to make computers smarter than us. Once that happens we don't have to worry about idiocracy happening unless the idiots destroy every computer or something

[Anonymous No.6292404]

>>6291594
I can safely say I am officially moving to Finland after reading that.

[Anonymous No.6292407]

its already here.

[Anonymous No.6292409]

[Anonymous No.6292411]

>>6292409
>conflates upper classes with intelligent people
>pretends illegitimate births didn't happen
>ignores that half the Idiocracy scenario was hopelessly stupid people being kept alive and ready to breed by advanced medicine and social services, when in the past they would have died young, orphaned their few children, and likely had those children die as well

[Anonymous No.6292416]

>>6292065
the fermi paradox isn't an explanation why. it is pretty much a statement of our observations.

[Anonymous No.6292418]

>>6292411
I never thought of that last point. certainly takes care of the "there have always been and always will be stupid people" arguement.

[Anonymous No.6292419]

>>6290998
>Why
Just read any thread on /sci/
>why not?
Read any thread outside /sci/

[Anonymous No.6292420]

>>6291159
Cave men weren't horribly violent brutes. Homo sapiens has always had a lot of prosocial instinct.

Compared to civilized humans, they just had much smaller nations. Smaller territories have more border per unit area, so there are more interactions with the foreign and potentially hostile. Civilizations don't have any better history of interacting with the foreign.

Because they lived in smaller communities, they also had more pure altruism.

People aren't born vicious brutes, who are trained to be decent by society. People are born people, who behave more or less rationally according to their circumstances.

A completely peaceful one-world society isn't especially rational or desirable. It's forced on us to be this peaceful by the awkward circumstance of living on one planet yet having nuclear weapons. We tolerate and appease what should be weeded out because of it.

[Anonymous No.6292423]

>>6292420
nuclear weapons are a symptom, not a cause

[Anonymous No.6292425]

>>6292418
In the long run, advanced medicine and social services can only lead to slugs on feeding tubes that give birth to litters every few weeks.

[Anonymous No.6292431]

>>6292425
only if they operate on the belief that every person is unique and special and deserves access to these things regardless of contribution. hell, even just making it mandatory to pass a drug screening first would do wonders. but that's already been proposed and the people cried out, "muh privacy!" yet employers are allowed to do this and in fact do this regularly.

[Anonymous No.6292433]

I'm not saying this is proof one way or another or that these things are even directly related, but china has the one child law and their students outperform students in the US, where people are given massive tax breaks if they have children.

[Anonymous No.6292435]

>>6292433
In China, half the population are illiterate peasants, and everyone from the middle class up pays professionals to take exams in their place.

And that one child policy is going to cause serious, serious problems. It's one of the main reasons to be afraid that they're going to be starting major wars in the next few decades.

[Anonymous No.6292445]

>>6292435
you make that sound like a bad thing. wars = rapid technological advancement. the last really big war lead to the space race and nuclear energy

[Anonymous No.6292461]

>>6292423
Are a symptom of what? The world is more peaceful because of nukes because the risk of conflict has has gone up dramatically.

Well, we have more local conflicts. It may be a wash. Pic related is the true WMD.

[Anonymous No.6292468]

>>6292461
>true WMD
By that logic, humanity is the true WMD, not anything that they have created.

[Anonymous No.6292514]

>>6290998
Average IQ, not that it matters at all, has been increasing since we started measureing it.

I'm not too worried.

[Anonymous No.6292517]

That movie was bad.

[kitty !kitty/EnNg No.6292526]

>>6292514
>Average IQ, not that it matters at all, has been increasing since we started measureing it.

yeah, people got used to taking tests

[Anonymous No.6292546]

>>6291593
I do wonder that from time to time.

>>6292420
>A completely peaceful one-world society isn't especially rational or desirable.
>I don't think its viable to have a peaceful multi-world society. The human race will always want more, there will always be more mouths to feed, its just in our nature.

In terms of people getting more stupid, I don't think its the case, its just the stupid have vocal leaders who are allowed to spout nonsense daily because of equal representation.

[Anonymous No.6292548]

>>6290998
This is not /sci/ related.

[Anonymous No.6292549]

>>6292548
>implying social science is not a science

[Anonymous No.6292576]

>>6292546
Sorry, "one-world society" should probably have been written "one-society world".

The problem isn't that there's one planet, or that human nature will make it inviable in the long term, the problem is that it sucks.

Without diversity and competition to create the selective counterpressure to the damage of random mutation, there's only the long, slow degeneration toward litter-bearing slugs with feeding tubes.

We need weeding. The superstitious religion of an infallible supernatural being to do it is false. The psychosocial scientistic religion of an infallible state to do it is false. We only have each other to do it, which means competition with the losers dying or failing to reproduce.

If we have to compete entirely within society, rather than between societies, it will become a backstabbing game with no objective criteria, where any apparent strength is a weakness because it gives others a reason to gang up against you. The selection pressure will be toward deviousness and sociopathy, reducing people to horrid crawly things.

War can be ugly, but it's what has kept us human after we rose above the challenges of nature.

>To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
>A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
>A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
>A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
>A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
>A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
>A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
>A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.