From: pete@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Peter Alexander Merel)
Subject: Re: The Marching Morons (was Re: Cindy the Disco Queen)
Organization: Sydney University Computing Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 10:29:50 GMT

kasprj@isaac.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak) writes:
>pete@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Peter Alexander Merel) writes:

>[...] The inherited trait is the human _capacity_ for 
>intelligence, not the "IQ level" which we use to measure variations within
>that capacity. 

Agreed.

>|> Plainly, the most successful memes are those that select for low 
>|>intelligence;
>[...] 
>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?

Hmm. I'm not certain that the question is relevant. Let's break it
down: a successful meme is one that propagates and persists. Now some
successful memes will not limit the ability to acquire further memes -
but some will. So once an individual acquires such a meme they'll have
difficulty acquiring memes that will permit them to function
"intelligently" in situations not catered to by memes that are
congruent with this "moron meme".

Now I run a real danger of offending people by giving examples, but I will say
that most religions (of course excepting the one true religion, whose identity
is left as an exercise for the reader) appear to me to be categorisable as
moron memes.

Of course it is possible to interpret this view itself as a moron meme.
I guess that some morons are more moronic than others. But given that memes
can be inherited and that successful moron memes may propagate by increasing 
their bearers' reproduction, it seems to me that Kornbluth was on the money.

>|> 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, 

Ah, Jim, that's not a nice word. But I'll explicate so that you can shoot me
down more politely. I'm not saying that there's a conspiracy to hoard knowledge
- that would indeed be paranoia. I am saying that education costs money, and
is not available to all. That's no one's fault - that's just the way things 
work. I am saying that people naturally hoard their skills and data - again,
no one's fault, just simple capitalism. I am saying that the first world, the
educated world, limits immigration and selfishly guards its technology, and 
there's no conspiracy there either - just nationalism.

The result of all this hoarding is that the ignorant masses get more ignorant
and more massive while the cultured develop their culture behind ever higher
walls of economic, social and military advantage.

>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? 

In case you haven't noticed, the morons appear to be eating them.

>Why are there so many programs aimed at trying to alleviate the high cost of 
>college education? 

Care to figure the ratio of college graduates to world population? (Hint, it is
not going up)

>The vast majority of educated people don't see their knowledge as a weapon 
>to use against the Marching Morons. 

You're quite right, they don't. There's no conspiracy here; just statistics.

>|> 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? 

Well, you're right here, this is going a little too far. Without copyright 
and its cousins there'd be considerably less incentive for the creative.

> 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. 

Woah Jim, while I agree that the US government is noxious, the morons are
breeding far faster beneath the considerably less enlightened governments 
that afflict most of the human race. 

>|> ...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.

:-) Actually what I meant by mass uploading was using nanotechnology to 
disassemble all life on the planet and reconstruct it in a kinder gentler
virtual reality with a thousand points of light. Educating Americans won't
even make the tiniest dent in the number of 'moronic' Chinese, Indians, 
Russians and third worlders on the planet, and all of those groups are
outbreeding you.

-- 
Internet: pete@extro.su.oz.au             UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!munnari!extro!pete
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