Wherein I give props to xkcd

[brynndragon]

Thank you xkcd for talking about an idea which I was willing to suspend disbelief for in order to have a laugh but have heard people actually spout as if it reflected reality. You see, in order to believe that premise you have to sincerely believe that smart people never ever do stupid things when it comes to sex. If you have such a belief, you clearly don't know any smart people (at least, you don't know them well enough ;P).

Comments

[schmycom.livejournal.com]

I've not seen the film but cannot resist participation in this discussion.

To me, there are too many other factors of influence to leave intelligence to be determined by genetics alone. For example:
- "Smart" parents may, while trying to ensure a "smart" future for their child, inadvertently interfere with their child's education, through coddling, expectations, location of schooling decisions, etc.
- "Dumb" parents may make decisions that allow their child to experience a greater exposure to ideas, thoughts, "smart" people, etc., leading to an environment conducive to learning

Or put simply, I'm sure we all have "smart" friends that seem not to have had "smart" parents and, conversely, know some "smart" or "educated" parents that have raised some dopey or doped children.

I somehow doubt that this comedy has time to make light of all the relevant minutiae of such a far-reaching concept. Also, like an earlier poster suggested, I'm sure the film is more a comment on today's society and the concept of intelligence drift was, while insightful, more a prop to justify the commentary.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Yes, Idiocracy was not an insightful commentary on the theory of downward intelligence drift - that was merely an means for letting Mike Judge do what he's built his career on: giving viewers the opportunity to watch stupid people do stupid shit and laugh their asses off. Which is why it's really annoying when people not only presume it's possible, but that it's even true. What, we can figure out that big robots that turn into cars is fake but we can't figure out that stupid people aren't taking over humanity?