From: kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: The Marching Morons (was Re: Cindy the Disco Queen)
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 13:39:07 GMT

In article <pete.724297489@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU>, pete@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Peter Alexander Merel) writes:

|> >Intelligence is not an inherited trait. There is enough variation 
|> >in the chromosomal crapshoot that a child can wind up significantly 
|> >above or below the intelligence level of the parents.
|> 
|> I don't see why intelligence should be any less subject to inheritance than
|> anything else. Granted that intelligence is not the result of any single 
|> allele, but a single allele (as in the case of Downs Syndrome) is sufficient
|> to reduce it. Given this I don't see why evolution won't select for
|> low intelligence if the least intelligent are the most successful breeders.
 
 This seems to be a common sticking point of people on the genetics-and-
population debate. The inherited trait is the human _capacity_ for 
intelligence, not the "IQ level" which we use to measure variations within
that capacity. 

|> Plainly, the most successful memes are those that select for low intelligence;
 
 I think we need to start using another word besides "intelligence" here to
avoid confusion, but I see what you're getting at. Still, it's debatable. 
Look at the performance of Japanese and European primary school students as
compared to those in the US. Which group would you say has the more successful
set of memes?

|> If the educated do not spread their knowledge, and
|> plainly they do not for reasons of economic, social and military advantage, 
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 This is paranoia and I think comes closer to alt.conspiracy than sf.science, 
but let's leave it here for now. Do you truly think that there is a conspiracy
by all the "educated" to hoard their knowledge? If so, then why do we still 
have public schools? Why are there so many programs aimed at trying to alleviate
the high cost of college education? The vast majority of educated people don't 
see their knowledge as a weapon to use against the Marching Morons. 
            
|> then the ignorant will sink us just as surely and swiftly as the unintelligent.
 
 That much I do agree with, though.

|> Every trademark, every patent, every copyright is another nail in the
|> coffin. 
 
 More paranoia, and directed against the wrong targets. How do these things
keep knowledge out of the hands (or minds) of ordinary people? 
 
 The real problem is the sorry state of our educational system, which, like
many aspects of the US government today, seems to exist more to keep a bunch
of bureaucrats employed than to do anything useful. We spend more on education
and get less out of it than any other nation on the planet, and we're reaping
today what we've sown for the past four decades.

|> ...the morons will march eventually. The only thing that
|> could conceivably stop them would be mass uploading, and it seems to me
|> that some time within the next century that uploading will become the
|> only way to save the race.
 
 Agreed, if by "mass uploading" you mean taking education seriously and 
making sure that everyone gets a healthy dose of it from the day they enter
school. We can learn a lot from the Japanese in this regard.

|> What can be done? Nothing while the social mechanisms that have gotten us
|> into this mess persist. The internet demonstrates that people can work together
|> to build good functioning anarchic systems; perhaps by promulgating and
|> maintaining your corner of it you can do some good. But a fire will come
|> one day.
 
 I'd hate to see the Net used as a model for the ideal education system. 
It only really works for those who already have a good education. Don't 
forget that the Net has its own Marching Morons - I'm sure you've run 
across them from time to time. The Net is an excellent device for keeping
people up-to-date on current knowledge _after_ they've finished their 
formal schooling. But then again, so are libraries, and they've been around
for a bit longer than the Net, and look at how few people avail themselves 
of the resources to be found.
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Sam Adams,Spaten# Life is too short #Hudson Lager,Beck's 
     \_| Pilsener Urquell#to drink cheap beer#Pete's Wicked Ale
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science,alt.folklore.science