Idiocracy?

[Neil]

Ok so the title kind of rips off of the movie a little bit but that's what this post is about so it doesn't matter.

Basically the idea behind Idiocracy is that as the future rolls in people will become dumber and dumber due to "dumb people" reproducing with "dumb people", eventually resulting in the collapse of all real intelligence, it sounded like a good idea for a movie and it was, it was quite enjoyable but that's not the focus of this thread.

The main focus is really one question, "do you think people are becoming dumber as we move into the future?"

I would like to say no but I actually believe humans are become dumber, rarely one person will not be noticably dumb but over time I would imagine more and more of it, through my life I have met two genuinly dumb people, they're not dumb because of lack of education, not dumb because they're lazy, I'm not really sure what it is with them, one is certainly more obvious than the other, for example, one of these people is 21, when she was 19 I got her to believe that they made rice krispies by feeding rice to pigeons, when the pigeons exploded they would then collect the rise krispies, clean them with special "stuff" then put them in the boxes and sell them on, now any normal person would find that crude and somewhat disturbing, this girl thought that and actually believed that's what happened.

So would you say we as a human race are becoming stupid?

-- If this is in the wrong section then obviously we have a good answer.

[RedStratocas]

we read an article in english a while ago about this. no we arent getting dumber, but our technology is progressing faster than our brains are evolving. we have developed so much new technology in the past half century or so that the people who use them dont really know how they work. ask any random iphone owner how their iphone works and they'll look at you with a blank face.

in short, we arent dumber than we were before, there's just more things for us to not know. if that makes sense.

[5,5]

In a way yes, but not all the way.
Becuase nowadays theres more and more kids that arent really motivated enough to do well in school. Theres too many distractions with electronics and whatnot, and kids parents arent even caring that much that their kids are failing. And obviously dumb people reproducing with other dumb people wont necesarily create a dumb child. Although it could if the parents can barely speak english and they send their kid to school barely being able to speak, nonetheless being able to learn how to read and write. So I think its purely about how much motivation and person has to decide whether they are smart or dumb.

[Neil]

In a way yes, but not all the way.
Becuase nowadays theres more and more kids that arent really motivated enough to do well in school. Theres too many distractions with electronics and whatnot, and kids parents arent even caring that much that their kids are failing. And obviously dumb people reproducing with other dumb people wont necesarily create a dumb child. Although it could if the parents can barely speak english and they send their kid to school barely being able to speak, nonetheless being able to learn how to read and write. So I think its purely about how much motivation and person has to decide whether they are smart or dumb.

I guess that's one way of putting it, a while ago I could of been considered dumb but really I was just lazy, I can do quite alot I just can't be bothered, I guess that's how the world could become stupider if it ever did. :P

You seen the movie anyway? xD

[kk.]

errr, well.. i think what red said actually makes sense. But i think the main thing is, TV makes people more aware of things. I think its always been how it is its just publicised a lot more. And its not that people are dumb, its because they dont try. Im sure almost everyone in the world is capable of getting a degree, providing they focus.

Also, i know i said to my self, why am i learning this if its already implemented? it just makes no logical sense.. It was decision maths which is pretty pointless. but, this could be applied to everything

[bo$$]

Ok so the title kind of rips off of the movie a little bit but that's what this post is about so it doesn't matter.

Basically the idea behind Idiocracy is that as the future rolls in people will become dumber and dumber due to "dumb people" reproducing with "dumb people", eventually resulting in the collapse of all real intelligence, it sounded like a good idea for a movie and it was, it was quite enjoyable but that's not the focus of this thread.

The main focus is really one question, "do you think people are becoming dumber as we move into the future?"

I would like to say no but I actually believe humans are become dumber, rarely one person will not be noticably dumb but over time I would imagine more and more of it, through my life I have met two genuinly dumb people, they're not dumb because of lack of education, not dumb because they're lazy, I'm not really sure what it is with them, one is certainly more obvious than the other, for example, one of these people is 21, when she was 19 I got her to believe that they made rice krispies by feeding rice to pigeons, when the pigeons exploded they would then collect the rise krispies, clean them with special "stuff" then put them in the boxes and sell them on, now any normal person would find that crude and somewhat disturbing, this girl thought that and actually believed that's what happened.

So would you say we as a human race are becoming stupid?

-- If this is in the wrong section then obviously we have a good answer.


I don't think humans are getting stupider but just more dependant on technology and stuff.

Plus like an above post said that the world is evolving at a rapid pace so there is more for us to NOT know

[5,5]

I guess that's one way of putting it, a while ago I could of been considered dumb but really I was just lazy, I can do quite alot I just can't be bothered, I guess that's how the world could become stupider if it ever did. :P

You seen the movie anyway? xD
Yeah I've seen the movie at a friends last year :P

[Jesus-Egg]

I read this article a while ago, I think it was on the bbc website, that was quite interesting. Basically, it said something like the human race would, over time, split into two seperate species. Intelligent people would reproduce, eventually evolving into a 'superior' species of tall, athletic, intelligent people, while the stupid people would breed, and evolve into a second 'inferior' species of small, stupid, dwarf-like people.

[LoveToStack]

I read this article a while ago, I think it was on the bbc website, that was quite interesting. Basically, it said something like the human race would, over time, split into two seperate species. Intelligent people would reproduce, eventually evolving into a 'superior' species of tall, athletic, intelligent people, while the stupid people would breed, and evolve into a second 'inferior' species of small, stupid, dwarf-like people.

Strange as it is that seems like a valid theory to me. Although atm you see tonnes of chubby, ugly guys with girls out of their league. This will need to be taken into account as it is upsetting the balance.

[Virgin Mary]

I think idiots are everywhere. For example, there's loads on this forum, look at the thread near this one about meteors. They are kind of frustrating how stupid they are, but in the end it makes me feel superior. So I don't really care if there are more or less.

[RedStratocas]

I read this article a while ago, I think it was on the bbc website, that was quite interesting. Basically, it said something like the human race would, over time, split into two seperate species. Intelligent people would reproduce, eventually evolving into a 'superior' species of tall, athletic, intelligent people, while the stupid people would breed, and evolve into a second 'inferior' species of small, stupid, dwarf-like people.

yeah that was an interesting article, though ive read some counter arguments to that too. what the counter said is that it's not always the case that smart parents produce smart children or vice versa, there's so many conditions that go into it and things that can happen. a family can change drastically from generation to generation.

but its weird, i just watched the movie idiocracy with my roommate today lol. i love that movie.

[Neil]

Some interesting things I didn't think about come up, it would make sense if we split off into two different "species" I don't know about the whole "dwarf" thing, don't really see how that would make sense but the smarter, higher up people becoming even smarter, taller and atheletic thing makes alot of sense since that's going on the same idea as "Idiocracy" just not with dumb people, I could imagine, probably millions of years from now we'll have smart people living in space stations or other planets and the stupid people forced to stay on earth and treated like monkeys, it may not happen that way but it would make alot of sense.