We're being outnumbered

[Turbinator]

I have just spent the afternoon watching CNN and I have come to the following conclusion.

It suddenly occurred to me, as the years pass, there are fewer and fewer brilliant minds per capita.
Every day the human race becomes (on average) stupider and stupider by the moment.

Back in their day.. for every 'einstien' or 'bohr' or 'tesla', there were thousands of (relatively) stupid(er) people in society.
But now: for every 'stephen hawking', there are MILLIONS of stupid people. what gives!?

We're to the point now, in today's society, where we think donald trump is some kind of genius.

(the people we look to, for wisdom, are a bunch of freaking turnips).

HOW did this happen?



Answer:
--> stupid people reproduce at a faster rate that smart people. (we're doomed).

On the one extreme: people with high I.Q are waiting until they are 40 to EVEN have a baby.
They go out and study, get educated, get established (financially), and then, finally, 40 years later, they grace us with their (singlular) offspring.
At this rate, it takes 80 years to conjure 2 generations of smart people (at a dwindling ratio of 2:1, parents per child).

Meanwhile: stupid people get pregnant at the age of 15. they live on welfare and get rewarded for each additional offspring.
They have six kids by age 24 and they collect 'child benefits' for each kid. in 80 years they churn out 5 generations (at a ratio of 2:6, parents per child).



Yes. These are extreme examples.. but the point is valid: as time goes on, the stupid people are outnumbering the smart people.
Eventually we WILL become a RACE of "turnips". with donald trump as president.

(we're doomed). *sigh**

[/end rant]

 

[Urwumpe]

My own theory is, that relatively more intelligent people had just become much more arrogant and thus produce much more stupid people.

 

[Artlav]

I don't think Idiocracy scenario is likely.

Probably the problem now is that everyone can be heard easily. Idiots always outnumbered rationals, but now any idiot can make himself heard worldwide quite easily. And people tend to stick to whatever they heard first, regardless of evidence.

"Back in the old days" there were no way for some antivac propagandist, for example, to be heard everywhere. He would have to pay the papers to print, pay the radio to broadcast, pay the printers to make books, preach in the squares, face-to-face.

And get kicked in the face. There were no shield of the media to prevent that.

 

[Face]

Answer:
--> stupid people reproduce at a faster rate that smart people. (we're doomed).

I once had the same thought, but now I think the theory is faulty, because it implies that stupid people have only stupid children and clever people have only clever children. Obviously, this is wrong, otherwise evolution could never work out. And that it works out we have evidence for.
I even think that the probability argument is not provable (that it is more probable for clever people to get clever children and vice versa)...

I have 3 kids, BTW

regards,
Face

 

[Urwumpe]

3 Kids?! Damn, I already failed the demo version at level 1. :facepalm:

Also I claim (wildly) that many people you call stupid today, have actually skills that prove the opposite. Such people maybe make tasteless comments on youtube, but do them with their smart phone while driving home from work in the train.

You don't need to be really stupid, just to make stupid acts.

 

[APDAF]

Build a bunker put all the smart people (like me) into it and push the big red button.
Simple.

 

[Artlav]

Define smart.

 

[Face]

Build a bunker put all the smart people (like me) into it and push the big red button.
Simple.

Now that would really be stupid. A bunch of "smart" people killing their ecosystem like that would rightly deserve to be removed from nature's gene pool.

 

[Urwumpe]

Now that would really be stupid. A bunch of "smart" people killing their ecosystem like that would rightly deserve to be removed from nature's gene pool.

he did never say what the red button does. Maybe it starts the music,

 

[Face]

he did never say what the red button does. Maybe it starts the music,

Hehe, yeah .

OTOH, some flavours of music would make it even more evil :lol: .

 

[Urwumpe]

OTOH, some flavours of music would make it even more evil :lol: .

I can only imagine it...

 

[garyw]

he did never say what the red button does. Maybe it starts the music,

40's dance hall revivial whilst locked in a bunker? Doesn't sound too smart to me.

 

[Urwumpe]

40's dance hall revivial whilst locked in a bunker? Doesn't sound to osmart to me.

well, "my small green cactus" might be suitable. :lol:

 

[Turbinator]

Define smart.

A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings — "catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do.

 

[Artlav]

I like that definition:

 

[Krikkit]

Obligatory xkcd

 

[APDAF]

I do not mean nukes I meant smallpox or something that kills only humans and not the ecosystem.

My definition is I.Q. or your degrees.

Mine is 178.

 

[Urwumpe]

I do not mean nukes I meant smallpox or something that kills only humans and not the ecosystem.

My definition is I.Q. or your degrees.

Mine is 178.

If yours is 178, mine can only be expressed by positive powers of ten.

 

[Sar]

The stupidity is the result of the cultural degeneration that puts beauty on the pedestal instead of intelligence. Now we have blondes with D-cups who can't see the difference between a cube and a pyramid instead of zit ridden gingers who think that cross checking class notes with a bottlegoggled curly haired boy with serious posture problems is the second base.

(Not sure if posture is the correct word there, but it was the first thing that came to mind, I'm meaning the issue you have if you don't naturally stand with a straight back and neck, and sorry for the overall bad english)

 

[Mister Kite]

A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings — "catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do.

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."
— Albert Einstein