Remember Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron"? What's happening today is a natural, technology-induced, equalization creeping normalcy process...Vonnegut's story had "handicaps" added to effect equalization, but I bet Vonnegut (who made clear his anti-tech-"progress" view in "Cat's Cradle", et alia) could see how technological "progress" was having the same effect. The overall tendency of our technological "progress", beginning with the first great tech transition from H&Ger to agricultural economics-life support has been to domesticate-tame-ant-ify/borg-ify us. It continues now at an accelerating pace. Just making sure the more intelligent among us are more reproductive cannot stop this process. Technological "progress" must be stopped, and a guy like Musk is sure not onboard with that...he'll have us all hooked up to AI with brain implants as soon as he can.
I think difference in fertility is not the only factor. And perhaps, at least up until the Boomer generation, fertility difference is actually a minor factor. My hypothesis: most intelligence decline comes from a natural drift / entropy, accompanied with a growing standard deviation (distribution broadening mostly toward the stupid side), i.e. Bratsberg & Rosenberg's “within-family variation” even in monogamous families.
Side note: I would also hesitate to underestimate an environmental/lifestyle impact on our health. The field of medicine has regressed in some important ways since the 1930s.
Elon Musk knows about this. In Ashlee Vance's biography of Musk, there is a passage about Elon saying that smart people should have more kids. That's why he keeps having kids with a lot of different women.
Yes, I agree absolutely! All forms of life have their technologies, most are body-internal-built-in-endosomatic...organs, special body structures and sensory abilities. They also exploit resources using those techs that they have in order to survive and seek to increase their power, power as energy and resource control and hroughput (Population X per capita energy and resource possession/use). That's the very essence of life...that which uses up energy and material resources, creates entropy, according to Jeremy England and Friedrich Nietzsche) Humans and a few other species have developed exosomatic tech, ability to use tools, but because of other built-in tech unique to us (esp our language and our brains' reality modeling abilities) we have become the great masters-lords of exosomatic tech that uses exosomatic energy. New exosomatic techs can evolve far faster than those that rely on genetic evolution, and we are constantly seeking new paradigms or energy and material resources to reach ever higher levels of power. Since we are living things, and therefore by necessity-definition seek to increase our power always, as long as our tech & resource paradigm's (TRP's) limits have not been reached, we will inevitably keep doing so. Today, we are in the midst of a deep crisis-challenge though: establishing the next TRP (beyond-fossil-energy and recycling of materials) before the old one is exhausted to the point that we can't even make the transition. The sower's paradox is beginning to be felt, esp in the "developing world". Socio-economic stress is on the rise as this happens.
Remember Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron"? What's happening today is a natural, technology-induced, equalization creeping normalcy process...Vonnegut's story had "handicaps" added to effect equalization, but I bet Vonnegut (who made clear his anti-tech-"progress" view in "Cat's Cradle", et alia) could see how technological "progress" was having the same effect. The overall tendency of our technological "progress", beginning with the first great tech transition from H&Ger to agricultural economics-life support has been to domesticate-tame-ant-ify/borg-ify us. It continues now at an accelerating pace. Just making sure the more intelligent among us are more reproductive cannot stop this process. Technological "progress" must be stopped, and a guy like Musk is sure not onboard with that...he'll have us all hooked up to AI with brain implants as soon as he can.
I think difference in fertility is not the only factor. And perhaps, at least up until the Boomer generation, fertility difference is actually a minor factor. My hypothesis: most intelligence decline comes from a natural drift / entropy, accompanied with a growing standard deviation (distribution broadening mostly toward the stupid side), i.e. Bratsberg & Rosenberg's “within-family variation” even in monogamous families.
https://odysee.com/@JollyHeretic:d/the-fall-in-iq-and-genius-will-not-be:6?lc=940b40bbb6760f36b2005328acb15bde884f9c748fbd356a4d55f823d3dcf216
Comments / refutations?
Side note: I would also hesitate to underestimate an environmental/lifestyle impact on our health. The field of medicine has regressed in some important ways since the 1930s.
The opening scene of the movie Idiocracy sums this up in a funnier and more accessible way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA
Elon Musk knows about this. In Ashlee Vance's biography of Musk, there is a passage about Elon saying that smart people should have more kids. That's why he keeps having kids with a lot of different women.
Yes, I agree absolutely! All forms of life have their technologies, most are body-internal-built-in-endosomatic...organs, special body structures and sensory abilities. They also exploit resources using those techs that they have in order to survive and seek to increase their power, power as energy and resource control and hroughput (Population X per capita energy and resource possession/use). That's the very essence of life...that which uses up energy and material resources, creates entropy, according to Jeremy England and Friedrich Nietzsche) Humans and a few other species have developed exosomatic tech, ability to use tools, but because of other built-in tech unique to us (esp our language and our brains' reality modeling abilities) we have become the great masters-lords of exosomatic tech that uses exosomatic energy. New exosomatic techs can evolve far faster than those that rely on genetic evolution, and we are constantly seeking new paradigms or energy and material resources to reach ever higher levels of power. Since we are living things, and therefore by necessity-definition seek to increase our power always, as long as our tech & resource paradigm's (TRP's) limits have not been reached, we will inevitably keep doing so. Today, we are in the midst of a deep crisis-challenge though: establishing the next TRP (beyond-fossil-energy and recycling of materials) before the old one is exhausted to the point that we can't even make the transition. The sower's paradox is beginning to be felt, esp in the "developing world". Socio-economic stress is on the rise as this happens.