The Role of Stupidity

luka

Well-known member
To me, it's far more offensive to say intelligence isn't real, because then you're stuck with "well they're just lazy" or something when called upon to explain why these people can't hang with post-industrial society.
im not sure offensiveness is a particularly useful metric here
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I think it's sorta true (see Eno on scenius) but only in the sense that piracy is theft.

When you take an idea, you are only ever taking a copy—it's a positive-sum economy instead of zero-sum
I understood it more as a metaphysical claim, that there is a supply of psychic wealth that some people manage to suck up, resulting in an uneven fabric of intelligence.
 
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linebaugh

Well-known member
I tend to believe most people have such little variance in innate intelligence that its a null distinction
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Gus after a fantastic display of stupidity to really get the thread going youve broken one of my rules by veering it towards a political discussion. right the ship
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I tend to believe most people have such little variance in innate intelligence that its a null distinction
I tend to think that a reliable signature of intelligence is the ability to compound abstractions mentally, as in complex maths. This seems like something one can exercise, but it also seems some are talented without much exercise.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
That gets into the murky territory of 'types' of intelligence though. the autistic savant the extreme example
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Yeah I don't believe in natural taxonomies here, but I do think some taxonomies can suffice in enabling people to better understand themselves.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I think a lot of it depends on stimuli during early years of development, which may sound obvious but would challenge the notion that intelligence is genetically predetermined.
 

luka

Well-known member
I think a lot of it depends on stimuli during early years of development, which may sound obvious but would challenge the notion that intelligence is genetically predetermined.
this is partly what im getting at with the notion that stupidity is something forced onto people.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
re: autistic savant, I don't know the science here (which isn;t to say that science is always worth treating as conclusive), but it seems that certain autism spectrum disorder conditions involve a somewhat enhanced ability to abstract information, to process and understand things abstractly, perhaps especially spatially, i.e. spatial representations of information, coordinate spaces, etc.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
this is partly what im getting at with the notion that stupidity is something forced onto people.
This I totally agree with, and it gets at some points @version made about the psychological impact/toll of poverty, perhaps a lack of cognitive or imaginative engagement as a child, parents too busy working, or perhaps not there at all.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
This I totally agree with, and it gets at some points @version made about the psychological impact/toll of poverty, perhaps a lack of cognitive or imaginative engagement as a child, parents too busy working, or perhaps not there at all.
This I think is a major crux in the discussion of "cognitive biodiversity" or whatever the trigger term is. That is, intelligence is largely determined by levels of cognitive/imaginative engagement as a child.

Poverty-stricken communities having less time/resources to foster their children's minds, which has the consequence of those children growing up with less of a cognitive advantage than those who were fostered in such ways. At least, there is a reasonable argument to be made here, one that doesn't strike me as especially controversial.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Theres also an innate stupidity that I think works the same for everyone regardless of intelligence. a quirk of the pattern seeking brain. the abyss staring back
 

luka

Well-known member
who was it said they were going to do a thread about the ways in which you are stupid? Charles Limburger? this is better anyway.
 
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