Are We Getting Dumber?

The fact is, we are breeding stupid people. It's because of the way the patent terms are altered with the GATT Treaty. The result is that we are selective breeding the human race by eliminating the most creative people in the world - the private inventors.

(We are doing the opposite of the Darwin theory- about the natural predators in the animal kingdom killing the weak and the ill, but the strong survive as the breeders.)
In the human world, the smartest often end up dead and we are left with stupid people as the breeders.

For more information about how and why it is being done, just go to http://mystupidrules.com/BX_BAD_Part_01.html

There's a bit of truth in what you say.

Just a small point about evolution though, it doesn't act to produce faster or stronger or what we see as "better" organisms. Whoever produces most surviving offspring ends up dominating the gene pool. Evolution has no "direction"

In the past accidents, predators or poverty induced starvation probably reduced the incidence of stupid, lazy people in the population, but the modern lifestyle means they're able to have large families who'll probably survive until they can breed.

Luckily this trend has been recognised and most entertainment is now made to suit this new majority.

Luckily this trend has been recognised and most entertainment is now made to suit this new majority.

I appreciate the ironic humor, and chuckled a bit, but really... if find this trend saddening. "Drill, baby, Drill!" and similar slogans appeal to the most basic instinct to grasp at oversimplifications for those to lazy to think things through. The appeal of McCain, which he has proudly announced, is that he was at the very bottom of his graduating class -- meaning he is "one of us"... not some smart lawyer type. When I was in school, we took pride in being at or near the top of the class. We valued rational thought. We valued analysis.

Now, the best the Republican party can come up with is dumb and dumber. And they are both applauded -- sold -- as being, effectively, not too smart. For me, I want the guy or woman who is thinking about launching a strike against Iran or North Korea to be smart. Why is that too much to ask? My dad is a Republican, and a valedictorian; clearly you do not have to be dimwitted to be Republican. How did we get to the point, as a nation, where we think singing "Bomb bomb Iran" is presidential?

"Drill, baby, drill!" Many women consider this very nearly obscene. Did no one think about all the various ways in which this could be construed and misconstrued. Did no one think that claiming foreign policy experience by virtue of living in Alaska might seem profoundly silly?

There is a body of literature developing on the politically beneficial aspects of stupidity that I have intended to read... but I am afraid I'd find it too depressing.

SAT scores were recentered a decade or so back to bring a score of 950 (which had become the average) back up to 1000 (which was the average a decade or two before).

Where I live, our local version of the Taliban had stickers placed on science books saying that evolution was "just one of several theories..." suggesting that "creationism" was yet another scientific theory. The stickers were removed, but only after a drawn out fight -- this in a suburban, affluent, metropolitan community, where there is little to suggest, outwardly, that we are back in the days of the Scopes trial.

I'm perfectly happy with people constructing whatever irrational story they want to believe for life to make sense for them. I am not at all happy when such beliefs are promoted as science, and imposed upon the population at large.

Million dollar HHO (run your car on water) ad budgets, "magnet motors", miracle spark plugs, etc, etc: all signs that more and more people are unwilling to engage in rational thought. A sad state of affairs.

I thought the underfunded school system and the government made sure to keep the people stupid.

they have to keep up the myth that the government has the people best interest in mind.

Our only constraints are imposed by ourselves. We can point fingers in any direction but at the end of the day I can only blame myself for where I have failed myself.

Not so! The dumbing does not begin only after the age of accountability and beyond...it is only perpetuated. Furthermore, it is constraints, not the lack of them, that prevents the mind-numbed outcome.

There is a good illustration of the above in the movie "Idiocracy"

I do not believe we are getting dumber. The media, including the Internet, are just very good at letting us know how many dumb people there are out there. Before, we were sort of insulated from that truth...The ratio of smart people to dumb people is probably pretty stable, at least in a normal human time frame.

Maybe you think the kids are bumb...but can you work their MP3 player or phone?

On a Darwinian level...they have evolved to cope with their environment...more traffic, more noise, crap TV wha'eva, no job security, threat of terrorism, worry about global economy, global warming, global backside, fuel prices, junk mail, that cute brunette that doesn't even notice them, one parent families
knife crime, gun crime,
buddy can you spare a dime?
sorry mate ain't got the time,
Burger joints that serve up slime...
finding stuff that's gotta rhyme..
And you thought they had an easy time?

Del

...but can you work their MP3 player or phone?

try taking it away from them, for punishment for not doing thier homework. Then listen to them whine, pout and crying unfair why did you do that....

Del you peot you.

interesting subject

if you ask around, no-one believes they are stupid. if they say so, they are probably just depressed (and often revise their verdict when their spirits get better...)

metrics for intellectual competence can only be set mathematically. the philosophy of Socrates, ..., Nitche, ... et al is not measurable, quantifiable and therefore inescapably subjective. the only definition of 'stupid' that I can accept is therefore: s/he who cannot understand/ does not practice mathematical logic (in the strictest sence, otherwise it's not logic, its sophistry)

by that standard, a great great many people are stupid, including a great great many who think they are not and have degrees to prove it.

...and including many many men of power: in the theory of evolution it's not the most intellectual who survives (intellectuals are usually respectful, peaceful and somewhat disconnected), instead it's the (dumber) agressive individual who likes interacting with the many stupid that will follow him, give him their money, their vote or their lives.

to get back to the topic, the internet does not harm, although it's true that it affects thinking, shortens attention span etc. skimming through an endless mixture of self-published treasures and garbage in the net is not so much different than reading through a truckload of edited heavy publications of treasures and garbage, except it takes considerably less effort and gives 'intelligent' people more choice and 'stupid' people more bits of info to impress themselves and others with.

15 years ago, I thought of myself as average in intellect. But as the problems I faced grew to unbelievable proportions; naturally I felt the need not only to tell others, but to worn them of the problems that can accrue within the local and federal government as well as the industrial industry, or should I say patent industry?

Basically I realized I had to learn how to write well because the things I was going through where not as easy to pitch as a Hollywood movie, and that most people's attention span is only good for the equivalent of a movie pitch.

Over time I learned that not even 1/2 of the population can even comprehend even the most thought out written material, while the other intelligent (maybe 1/3) will say that I'm a good writer and they fully understand the material.

As for pitching the situation verbally, I've learned the signals of the idiots who I'd be wasting my time trying to explain something to. Thankfully, I now have a web-site I came just tell them to check out and I can part my way.

And for this situation with people who have ADD -- apparently some drug company used mercury for a preservative in their vaccines.

The questions I have is did our government even care or do anything about it?

Is the company still in business?

Hello sunnyside

And for this situation with people who have ADD -- apparently some drug company used mercury for a preservative in their vaccines.

Thermisol (mercury) and aluminum. Not one but most possibly all. Read some real interesting papers on this a few days ago. When I can verify it some more I'll post it.

I would guess I'm less tolerant of my facts than you. 1 in 10 can think, 1 in 100 can think for themselves. 1 in 10 can drive.

The questions I have is did our government even care or do anything about it?

Some where I ran into a source other than the internet that claimed the US government did all types of legal preparation for the fallout when they started mandating vaccines and didn't need them. Other than stating their source was the freedom of information act, that's all I remember.

Brad

Google does not make you dumb, how well you use or abuse your tools makes you smart or dumb.

Not to get off topic, but... (only for a sec.) I'm back on topic second half of comment.

Hello Brad

I have been wondering about what you mean by - that you guess that you are less tolerant about your facts than I? Please clarify that statement please.

And I have a comment about the freedom of information act, that it's just a crock.

I can't even get my own arrest report without being threatened to be thrown in jail for going to the place where the Malibu Sheriff Department told me I could get them.
Once there, they wouldn't even let me in the door without going to jail.

(They gave me a paper saying I'd have to subpoena the court for it.)

When I tell people about the experience, they ask: "What about the freedom of information act?"

Then in Tacoma Washington, I was able to buy one arrest report (about a dozen pages,) for $15.00

Then when I had my sister go after two other arrest reports, they said that there was about 75 pages, and the cost would be $15.00 per page.
However, I'd have to admit that my sister could have been lying to me and there is a good chance she never w, but when I'm in California, what am I suppose to do?

Another thing that I think is making people stupid, is the drugs that doctors prescribe to people who they think have some kind of mental problem. (And street drugs of course.)

I don't think Google has anything to do with making people stupid, however it may make people a little lazy. Like me for one, (well maybe not,) I use it to find a word that I can't spell, however, I would not call that making me lazy, just faster.

PS - And what is it with all these empty guest comments?

Hello sunnyside,

I have been wondering about what you mean by - that you guess that you are less tolerant about your facts than I? Please clarify that statement please.

I was off-handedly stating I'm cynically biased. eg. I'm told the sky is blue, it looks blue but unless I understand why it looks blue when space is an empty black and full of stars I'm cynical. Even when I think I understand something I've learned to be cynical. Thought I understood 3phase and 220 US electrical. CR4 members straitened me out. I even understood it enough to wire it safely but had major conceptual issues on how it worked.

I sent you a off blog message on the FOIA, what I can tell you is the court system is not what you are taught in public school. Let me know if you want more information. Many lawyers are clueless. I have yet to lose a case but do not consider myself proficient yet. My mentor makes 600 per hr and is not an attorney.

as for the empty guests

maybe they are empty guesters ok it's a PPP (piss poor pun)

Brad

No, only changing the perspective of what "not dumb" is; but that's been going on for a while now...even before Google.

When my kids were in school learning math, I insisted, much to their dismay, that they learn to do math manually...no calculators. Yes, their home work grades suffered and weren't as good as the others in their classes who had been allowed to use calculators. But when they took test and no one was allowed to use a calculator they excelled where others failed.

So I would have to say some things are better off doing them the "Old School" way and using Google to find information isn't one of them. It's an efficient time saving research resource and the results are the same as the time consuming method looking it up at a library in a book!!!

Are "We" getting dumber? Or Google making us stupid? To find out, one only needs to ask just how many reasonably intelligent things can be said about...this.

It is all about what you do with the Internet in general and Google in particular. If p0rn is all that you search for on the Internet, dumb and pervert you will become. If all you do is hang out on CR4 all day, dull and intelligent you will become.

The Internet is the best resource available to satisfy our hunger for knowledge. It is up to you how you use it

I am much to perceptive and well informed to be of use here!

ug

I doubt people are getting "dumber", we are just changing. A major weakness in all this research is the ability to access it. People spend years working on things that have already been done or explained. Google is a catalyst that allows quicker progress, cause thats what it is about PROGRESS, not the medal of being "smart". Give a chimpanzee the right tools and the goal and it'll do ridiculous stuff. All google may do is lower memory recall cause space is no longer needed since it can be accessed quickly in physical terms. This allows more "room" for creative thought which is important for PROGRESS. I agree progress should be questioned each step of the way, and kudos to Nicholas Carr, but a major problem right now is the ability to access new information and Google does a great job of making tons of knowledge easily accessible.

On the lighter side of people dumbing down. When a person than has mediocre intelligence standing next to them, will really look like a genius.