I hate to say this, but I have often wondered about the future of the human species .. we will certainly keep our technology, but our overall intelligence and ingenuity will diminish, as this video reveals. (clips from the Mike Judge movie, Idiocracy).
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Note this is from the brilliant Mike Judge movie Idiocracy.
C.M. Kornbluth stories come to life...
This is just too funny... and also very true.
My wife has a BS in anthropology and biology, masters in wildlife biology and I, a BS in Electrical Engineering. I got a vasectomy shortly after we got married. No kids and aim to keep it that way (the rescue cats make better family anyways and won't ask to borrow the car, at least I hope not).
Meanwhile, my high school drop out nephew has 2 that we know about and a niece, that also never completed high school, has three. Both are under 30 with great potential for more.
I'd fear for the future, but why worry about the inevitable.
From the ever prescient Nukees:
http://www.nukees.com/d/20000630.html
Which continues for two more comics.
This line of argument seems to have been going on for some time. Although Darwin set out the argument in a rather different style.
And no, I'm not implying that Aussie philosophers have devolved.
Bob
Its interesting to compare the arguments from Darwins time to todays reality. While in those days the difference in the rates of births between poor and richer segments of the population was counteracted by higher mortality in the former group, these days medical and social security advances, less wars etc, have removed this selection pressure from the equation. Evolutionary biologists tend to think in the long term and as such overall the number of alleles will find their own appropriate level within that future environment. However, within shorter time frames (such as the lives of anyone reading this message) there exists the possibility that the population overall could decrease in intelligence. Those at the top (economically speaking) are pretty immune from the consequences but one wonders how many of the middle group, such as scientists for instance, are coping being in probably the current main negative selection group. (And people wonder why we believe in evolution !)
okay, i have to share this thought with you: george bush is proof that evolution goes backwards!
so basically, the future is now! eeek!
interesting!... i have been wondering for a while about the phenomenon of negative selection pressure on intelligent, high achieving people. If you compound the issue shown in the video clip with the fact that people carrying significant genetic flaws are in modern society not only surviving, but likely to be able to reproduce, "devolution" takes on even more meaning.
Not that I am supportive of any sort of racial/genetic/ethnic cleansing whatsoever - bring on the full range of humanity in all its forms! - nor am I denying the right of any person born to the full support of medical science and basic human rights.
NJ has the right of it. The first thought that sprang to MY mind was Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons".