Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future • Hacker News Board

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#91

Post by neuronic » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

battles wrote: post #40

One of the best predictions from Idiocracy is our reliance on AI that no one understands anymore. They made all of these systems that did everything for them and decades later, after barely even needing to think for themselves for so long, they’re dumb as rocks and have no idea how anything works.

AI doesn't exist. There is nothing inherently intelligent about deep NNs which are merely very good pattern matching algorithms, statistics really... The term AI suggests something is thinking which is false marketing at best, abused by thousands of consulting companies for a decade now.

Unless of course your opinion is that thinking is just statistics which makes for an interesting metaphysical discussion.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#92

Post by champagnois » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

magikaram wrote: post #32

malchow wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're right. Idiocracy was much more Judge's critique of the lazy morality ("It's irresponsible to have kids!") and lazy voting ("burrito coverings") of the yuppie class. These days, you can even see wokeism being lambasted ("Welcome to Costco, I love you.").

I even forgot about the corporate wokeism that is placated towards consumers for their 'one month a year gay pride twitter image', then not upholding the same morals year-round

It is important people feel accepted and such, but reality requires everyone participate in the meritocracy of struggling through the economy.

A company that can afford to do identity-politics based hiring initiatives is a company that has more money than they know what to do with. Companies in the earlier stages that will go on to be successful are going to be lean and meritocratic.

FWIW, I really like how the Coinbase CEO handled the toxic woke employees they got burdoned with.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#93

Post by ss108 » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

cbozeman wrote: post #77

sabhiram wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the Rock did just announce that he is interested in politics. Kidding aside, he would likely make a much better leader than the current self indulgent noise.

Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump. Shit... why not Dwayne Johnson?

I don't think grouping Reagan and The Rock with Trump is fair at all.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#94

Post by FredPret » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #71

jrs235 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt the underlying message was "Intelligent people, stop focusing on career and start having more kids (we really are in a race to the bottom)!"

If we think we need intelligent people in order to have intelligent children that seems like an argument for nepotism and hereditary positions, which isn't very progressive.

Perhaps the fact that we DO need intelligent people to have intelligent children will lead to some forced changes in our society down the line, progressive or not

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#95

Post by lghh » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

alphabettsy wrote: post #25

borepop wrote: post #8

Don't Look Up, currently out on Netflix, seems to owe a fair amount to Idiocracy. And/or to the ways in which American culture morphed into Idiocracy over the last several years.

Yea, but while accurate it was terrible. Idiocracy is funny, Don’t Look Up was not to me.

It felt so grounded in reality that it took very little creativity to write or think about. Making 1-to-1 comparisons of things and people isn't very interesting. Such thin layers of abstraction don't add much value in media just as they don't in software development. It's basically just cut-and-paste.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#96

Post by runlevel1 » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

magikaram wrote: post #10

"The underlying message of course is that humans ought to take such things as science, research and knowledge seriously, lest we create our own Idiocracy." Rather, I felt the underlying message of the film is that the film is a critique of the consumerism and corporatism of the US. The 'idiocracy' with how the government runs, the downward trend of education in the US, and the pessimistic views of our future.

The Learning Channel (TLC) once aired documentaries but is now a heartbeat away from "Ow, My Balls!"

Is TLC making people more stupid or are they just giving an already foolish population what they want?

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#97

Post by Croftengea » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:12 PM UTC

cbozeman wrote: post #77

sabhiram wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the Rock did just announce that he is interested in politics. Kidding aside, he would likely make a much better leader than the current self indulgent noise.

Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump. Shit... why not Dwayne Johnson?

I'm pretty sure Arnold would become a president at some point if he was born in the US.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#98

Post by fnord77 » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #45

One thing that is maybe missing in this discussion is that this is not a new phenomenon. Greek antiquity had a period of intellectual enlightenment when science became popular enough to rival religion (see eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_rerum_natura ) then long medieval and dark periods where this was no longer the case. Then a renaissance, many aspects of which were also non lasting. The important thing to rea…

this is where certain "smart" politicians completely drop the ball. Look at Hillary Clinton - she mocked and insulted nearly half of the US population by calling them "deplorables". Not the way to get them to follow her!

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#99

Post by anthropodie » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

mattkevan wrote: post #52

Idiocracy doesn’t actually go far enough to match current-day reality. In the film, people were smart enough to understand they weren’t all that intelligent. Even the president was willing to defer to someone who knew more than him. The last couple of years have proven that to be rather naive when it comes to our real leadership.

If you do not have time to watch the movie, check out Mystery recapped explaining the movie in short[0]

[0]: Awaken In 2505, Humans Devolve Into Stupid Beings And He Become The Smartest On Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnLxc954ipo

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#100

Post by FredPret » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

vorpalhex wrote: post #64

zarkov99 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reality is much darker than this: cognitive elites have fewer children than the rest so the average population IQ drops over time (once you fix the low hanging fruits of nutrition/health care of course) . I do not see any solution to this that is not straight out of Brave New World.

While a great plot point that is entirely fantasy and fiction. The average IQ rate of every generation tends to be a few points higher, though there may be a cap. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Might well be down to:

> the low hanging fruits of nutrition/health care