Idiocracy?

Question

Who saw the movie? This is the premise:

As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest produced in greater numbers than the rest. A process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd it began to reward those who reproduced the most and left the intelligent to become an endangered species."

Are we going toward something like this?

Answer 1

Great movie.

We are certainly going toward something like this - try holding an intelligent conversation about anything with a public school graduate.  I see undergrad students who should never have been let out of Jr High, much less High School.

The phrase "Bush Sucks" seems to be the perfect substitute for a logical argument in this crowd.  They lack even the most basic knowledge of history, economics, logic, and the sciences.  Most of these students have more belief in magic - crystal power, aromatherapy, herbalism, and other new-age pagan BS - than they do in reality.

Answer 2

Almost certainly, just try to rememeber which sensor goes in the mouth and which one goes in the bum.

Answer 3

Yep. Seams so.

Answer 4

Omg, I love that movie!! It's so funny but at the start it completely explains how It's not suvival of the fittest, strongest or smartest but of the dumbest!!

Of course the scary thing about that movie is that it is a great observation of human characteristics and will probably happen one day!!  ( but not that extreme!! I mean there will be smart people, but  a minute  group compared to the dumb!)

Yes it is bad that we are going towards this, we either need to improve our education systems or accept the great big dumb future, look on the bright side, there'll be things like "starbucks"! Lol

Answer 5

I loved it and think of all the Britney Spear's out there having kids.  I hope more intellegent people start having kids.  Could you imagine the White House with "Dog's Playing Poker" paintings in it" or huge holes in the wall?

Answer 6

I did not see this movie, but I agree with the premise entirely. The first author I read who was pointing out this dumbing down was Robert Anton Wilson, in Prometheus Rising. (If you haven't read this, do... it's one of the most important books written in the 20th Century, even if you don't agree with all of the late RAW's ideas, he was a genius)

As an educator, I see this dumbing down in the new, more expensive, dumbed down Curricula schools are forced to adopt every couple of years.

Answer 7

I didn't.

It's all hogwash. First, it's just not true that the process ever favored the noblest traits of man. Brutality, for instance, is NOT a noble trait, but the opposite.

Secondly, as prenatal care and nutrition improve, there will be much less stunting of intelligence.

Third, when people have good reason to think they won't starve in their old age, and that off-spring will survive them, they're less likely to have lots of babies, on the whole.

It's just not so that only dumb people have lots of kids, and only smart people have few.

Actually, evolution does tend to favor intelligence, as women are more attracted to smart guys -- sexual selection is one of the basic processes in evolution.

So, no, we aren't going toward something like this.

BTW, we haven't had natural predators for a really long time -- so the whole "thinning" thing hasn't been going on for just about forever.

We haven't gotten dumber, we've gotten smarter.