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Comment by pbhjpbhj | Hacker News Reader

It's true though, isn't it? The response is what typifies Nazi and similar positions.

It is curious that there's no reported disgenic effect though - that seems counter to evolutionary theory? Perhaps it's only limiting the rate of growth of IQ/intelligence.

There's a classic sci-fi story in which we rely on computers, the population gets dumber to the point noone knows how to make/fix the computers. I think in that there's a computer glitch that then wipes out humanity; but it's from the time when there were monolithic computers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence - it says 'fertility' but I think it means fecundity/actual reproduction

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Are you talking about the one called "The Machine Stops", published like a hundred years ago?

I think there are lots of sci-fi stories on this topic, one I can think of is "Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi (https://books.google.de/books?id=HoSXDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT125&sourc...), which is from this century...

That story is incredible, with insights into what technology would mean.

What sort of a response do you think a movie whose premise is “dumb people have overbred and made the world worse” is intended to provoke?

That education is a general good?

I'll have to watch it again, all I remember it as was a goofy movie. It didn't make me think "we have to kill all the stupid people".

Actually I'm inclined to think it's more like My Fair Lady and that much of what we call intelligence is down to opportunity and motivation.

Laughter?

Is Dennis the Menace a treatise on corporeal punishment?

If we want to treat Idiocracy as a policy paper, why not take away as a lesson to think beyond merely themselves when the well-educated decide whether to raise children?

The film wasn't about education, it was about genetics, as the intro makes abundantly clear. And the Redditors who get themselves hot and bothered about this film aren't laughing, they're congratulating themselves on being the intelligent ones instead of the dysgenic stupids while crowing about how "Idiocracy is a documentary" -> stupid people are overbreeding.

If most people in the thread have different takeaways, and you're laser-focused on seeing eugenics and superiority (especially when you keep making condescending remarks like "hope this helps" or "work on your reading comprehension"), I don't think that reflects on the film

Yeah, the consensus of a plurality of users of a Silicon Valley startup incubator heavily associated with the right wing is definitely the only opinion that matters about the subtext of a film.

"The people who disagree with my interpretation must be right-wing" says nothing about the film

Good luck in your quest of persuasion-by-bludgeon

>but it's from the time when there were monolithic computers.

Or centralized SOTA LLMs.

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