Poll: Epidemic stupidity

[mcgooch]

No most people have and always will be stupid. It's so ingrained in our society that we are superior creatures and yet from what I see day to day I find it hard to believe.

Note: having an opinion opinion on everything does not make you intelligent, but rather having informed, logical and well thought out opinions.

 

[CosmicGrenade]

Whats that saying (or a version of it)
'If Idiots Could Fly The Internet Would Be An Airport'
But remember a few times when me and my dad did car boot sales, you would get someone going to the other people selling and asking if they could change this £50 note or another way crims can use the £50 note is to by a £2.99 pen keep the cashier talking and they give them the change AND the £50 note too

On there pole I think you need 'OMG it's too late'

 

[Korolev]

The problem is that we cannot accurately measure intelligence, and a person's intelligence is partially influenced by their upbringing and nutrition. For example, in nations with very poor nutrition, the brain does not form properly leading to low I.Q scores, but when those nations become richer, the I.Q of the population shoots up dramatically.

People aren't any MORE stupid than they were 400, 500, even 10,000 years ago. I can guarantee you that people in the dark ages were pretty ignorant. Genetically, we've barely changed over the past 10,000 years as a species.

And people aren't really getting "smarter" - well, technically they are because they have better nutrition and they can be educated at an early age, versus having poor education and having to spend almost your whole life foraging for fruit. But if you could take 1000 babies from 500 B.C and educate them and raise them in today's modern society, they'd be exactly the same as children today. Modern day people aren't smarter - just more knowledgable and refined.

There are some alarming trends - in the west (The US especially) many teenagers and children no longer care for science. As a result, over half of the researchers in the United States come from overseas, because so many American kids don't want to study math or science. The US is in a jam - it still has the best universities and the best scientific teams in the world, but it's not longer leading the way it used to - it's fumbling with the ball and it won't be too long until someone else snatches it from their hands.

A society gets "dumber" when it no longer respects intellectual pursuits. In the US, the religious right scorns science, popular media labels them as "nerds". The problem with so many teenagers today is that they think they can count on someone else to do their thinking for them. If they aren't careful, they could lose their position in the world of science.

So yes - in some societies, people are no longer being educated to the same degree. But they aren't stupid - just ignorant. And that's a correctable problem. All it takes is more education and better parenting.

 

[dantheman931]

The problem is that we cannot accurately measure intelligence, and a person's intelligence is partially influenced by their upbringing and nutrition. For example, in nations with very poor nutrition, the brain does not form properly leading to low I.Q scores, but when those nations become richer, the I.Q of the population shoots up dramatically.

People aren't any MORE stupid than they were 400, 500, even 10,000 years ago. I can guarantee you that people in the dark ages were pretty ignorant. Genetically, we've barely changed over the past 10,000 years as a species.

And people aren't really getting "smarter" - well, technically they are because they have better nutrition and they can be educated at an early age, versus having poor education and having to spend almost your whole life foraging for fruit. But if you could take 1000 babies from 500 B.C and educate them and raise them in today's modern society, they'd be exactly the same as children today. Modern day people aren't smarter - just more knowledgable and refined.

There are some alarming trends - in the west (The US especially) many teenagers and children no longer care for science. As a result, over half of the researchers in the United States come from overseas, because so many American kids don't want to study math or science. The US is in a jam - it still has the best universities and the best scientific teams in the world, but it's not longer leading the way it used to - it's fumbling with the ball and it won't be too long until someone else snatches it from their hands.

A society gets "dumber" when it no longer respects intellectual pursuits. In the US, the religious right scorns science, popular media labels them as "nerds". The problem with so many teenagers today is that they think they can count on someone else to do their thinking for them. If they aren't careful, they could lose their position in the world of science.

So yes - in some societies, people are no longer being educated to the same degree. But they aren't stupid - just ignorant. And that's a correctable problem. All it takes is more education and better parenting.

I think we're talking about two different things. I'm referring more to common sense than to formal education; surely you'll agree that it's perfectly possible to be well-educated and as dumb as a post all at the same time. Common sense is what tells you not to buy a "computer" from a complete stranger who then hands you a handwritten reciept. I think that somewhere along the line, people got the idea that they didn't have to apply common sense anymore because (a) bad stuff only happens to other people, (b) there's no problem so great that it can't be solved by screaming at every random shmuck within fifty meters, (c) they're just so freakin' awesome that no one would dare try to scam them, or (d) everyone is trustworthy, except when they're not.

It reminds me of the stories you used to hear about old people being scammed out of their retirement when they ran across some web site that promised to make them millionaires, and started handing out bank account numbers like Halloween candy. The usual excuse is that they fell for it because they were old and therefore more trusting, but when was it *ever* a good idea to trust your pension to a complete stranger?