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

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#101

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

cxr wrote: post #54

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.

The thing that bothers me about most contemporary praise for Idiocracy is the failure to view it through the appropriate historical lens, and so most of the praise ends up being shallow in the retconned context. Idiocracy was created in a specific time period—the same one that American Dad! was born in. (NB: "born" being the crucial word in the previous sentence.) It's possible in 2021—or 2011, even—to have watched a…

I mean...I can see why it'd be called smug...but to be honest, I don't think it was targeted to people that would be bothered by the smugness.

That is, it seemed like it was genuinely an expression of frustration/dismay/astonishment by it's creators to give it's audience a bit of...not quite catharsis...solidarity perhaps?

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#102

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

fairity wrote: post #85

This prophecy is flat out wrong because it ignores the future impact of genetic engineering. The rise of genetic engineering is going to allow humans to solely give birth to geniuses. This will more than counteract this idiocracy effect.

I don't know why you would assume that. If the things most people value like social acceptance and popularity don't value intelligence why would the parents select for it even if they could? It will simply become a cheaper route to everyone being a supermodel than plastic surgery.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#103

Post by netcan » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

Idiocracy is fun, but the instinctive "OMG so true" is, IMO, wrong. The film riffs on a common fallacy more so than it's actually insightful. Statements like "people these days are so stupid/lazy/immoral" tend get an instinctive thumbs up. The slang, pop culture & consumerism of the future are the main way the film "demonstrates" that people got dumber.

The premise of Idiocracy is that dumb people reproduce more and society gets dumber. Eugenical yuckness aside, the reality is that IQ has been rising. Education too. Literacy, obviously. The average ability think through abstract concepts is on the up. Meanwhile, bookish nerdiness is more highly rewarded culturally and financially than before. It's not marginal either. People are smarter, not dumber, in this sense.

Whatever "stupidity" we observe isn't IQ. It's not a simple definition of smart and dumb.

I suspect what people are observing when they observe a stupidity trend is more of a dumb culture than a culture of dumb people. Maybe individuals are getting smarter but the culture is getting dumber. IDK. I have no conclusions. Just pointing out that any concrete "arguments" made by the film are actually quite fallacious, despite being pretty widely resonant.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#104

Post by chrsig » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:16 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.

Can you describe how you felt it was terrible?

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#105

Post by wyldfire » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

malchow wrote: post #22

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.

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.").

But "Welcome to Costco, I love you" isn't a critique of wokeism. It's the false affection you get from a "greeter" at the door.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#106

Post by anthropodie » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

titzer wrote: post #60

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.

I particularly love the UI at the Hospital. Just icons. I have felt this way about tablets and the ever-devolving UI trends on the web that infantilize users. Just mashing our big fat fingers onto one of three pretty, beveled chips. Turning us into sub-literate simpletons because they can't be bothered to put a word on a thing!

And that is why it's good to learn terminal. You get to know inner working's of what's happening.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#107

Post by giantg2 » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

fairity wrote: post #85

This prophecy is flat out wrong because it ignores the future impact of genetic engineering. The rise of genetic engineering is going to allow humans to solely give birth to geniuses. This will more than counteract this idiocracy effect.

Just because someone posses intelligence does not mean they use it, or use it appropriately. Curiosity and becoming auto didactic are likely nurture vs nature. If you do have a societal shift in intelligence, then it will just change the baseline. IQ scores are relative to the mean. People will question what the point of the intelligence arms race is. Will it make life any better? Will it present more threats (more intelligent threat actors)?

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#108

Post by hamiltonians » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

wealthy, smart people tend to have more kids, not fewer.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#109

Post by autokad » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

seanhandley wrote: post #56

The irony for me here is that the author adds no additional intelligence or insight of their own - this is a simple retelling of the story of the Idiocracy film - framed as a prophecy coming true - simply to add eyeballs to the content machine that pays their salary.

also the irony is that the author's take is the idiocy isn't from the bad decisions of the government, its from those 'idiots' who just wont believe everything they say and comply.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#110

Post by fortyseven » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

micromacrofoot wrote: post #55

alphabettsy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Idiocracy was satirical comedy, Don't Look Up is just satire.

DLU didn't know WHAT it wanted to be, so it tried to be both a comedy AND drama. Sucked at both, imo. Great cast. Lousy execution.

Can't for the life of me figure out the appeal.

I mean, sure, people are morons, but everyone everywhere had to be CARTOONISHLY stupid and incompetent in the flick to make the plot work.

That worked for Idiocracy because that was the projected future. A warning.

DLU needs that level of dumb TODAY.

And yes, I lived the last 5 years, and I'm deeply cynical of humanity... but even I thought it was all a bit too much.