Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 302 posts

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#131

Post by chrsig »

ALittleLight wrote: post #29

Many people like to say "Idiocracy is a documentary" or some similar thing implying they think it's realistic. I've never seen anybody take the premise of the movie seriously though. If idiots are reproducing out of control and that will lead to a bad result, doesn't that mean we should reduce the reproduction of idiots and increase the reproduction of the intelligent? To avert Idiocracy we need eugenics, no?

We'd only need eugenics if competency is strictly linked to genetics.

We can probably make a lot of progress investing in schools, making higher education more accessible, finding more engaging teaching strategies, ensuring that parents have all the resources they need to care for their children...more access to mental health services...

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#132

Post by spankalee »

ss108 wrote: post #93
cbozeman wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

If the category is TV/movie celebrities in politics, why not?

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#133

Post by [deleted] »

chrsig wrote: post #78

I encourage everyone to watch Don't Look Up . In many ways it struck me as the spiritual successor to Idiocracy. I needed to watch it in chunks, because of how viscerally real it is. It is funny, in that it's ostensibly comedy, and the actors all have great comedic timing...but it's also a very very honest appraisal of where we're at as a society.

[deleted]

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#134

Post by chrsig »

carapace wrote: post #44
ALittleLight wrote: post #29

Many people like to say "Idiocracy is a documentary" or some similar thing implying they think it's realistic. I've never seen anybody take the premise of the movie seriously though. If idiots are reproducing out of control and that will lead to a bad result, doesn't that mean we should reduce the reproduction of idiots and increase the reproduction of the intelligent? To avert Idiocracy we need eugenics, no?

> I've never seen anybody take the premise of the movie seriously though. Where have you looked? People have been talking about this for awhile now. > If idiots are reproducing out of control and that will lead to a bad result Yeah... > doesn't that mean we should reduce the reproduction of idiots and increase the reproduction of the intelligent? Who's "we" in that sentence? Intelligent people are unlikely to adopt f…

> Who's "we" in that sentence? Intelligent people are unlikely to adopt foolish plans, by definition.

You're confusing intelligence with wisdom. Intelligent people are likely to recognize a plan as foolish. They may or may not have the wisdom to avoid adopting it. Knowledge doesn't necessarily change behavior -- there are many many smart people who've gotten addicted to harmful substances, for example.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#135

Post by wyldfire »

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!

Icons have a practical benefit of reducing the cost of selling your product in international markets. But it does introduce confusion and ambiguity sometimes when the intended function is unclear.

I suppose there's a side effect that it lowers the bar for the illiterate, making it easier for them to function. I doubt it's a significant factor in whether they decide to learn to read.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#136

Post by InspiredIdiot »

fairity wrote: post #112
InspiredIdiot wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, there's no reason to believe attractiveness and intelligence are mutually exclusive. Are you saying parents would choose to forego intelligent traits in their children when all else is equal?

Agreed. It could easily not be an either/or thing. If you look at how services are charged today they always try to extract maximal value. So I doubt that it will just be "while you're engineering my child could you please make them better in every way for no additional cost to me?" The provider will have a premium package even if it costs them more to _not_ do it for market segmentation purposes. Look at Intel disabling parts of otherwise functional CPUs for an example. Given that, if people have the choice I think they will value looks more and be more willing to pay for those so unless intelligence is actually cheaper they won't choose it.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#137

Post by cblconfederate »

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!

> ever-devolving UI trends

I thought it was just lazy developers who don't want to internationalize their strings.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#138

Post by im3w1l »

dfxm12 wrote: post #87
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)!"

I think that was more of a minor plot point to move the story along rather than the real message. Judge just took a common theme, probably popularized in The Time Machine (The HG Wells book, not the ride in the film), to get us from point A to Point B quickly. After all, it was such a small part of the movie compared to how much time was spent focusing on lowest common denominator entertainment (ow my balls), commerc…

The real genius of Idiocracy is that it realizes that the audience wants to see "ow my balls" but doesn't want to admit it. So it provides a framing where you both get to feel above it and get to indulge.

Re: Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future

#139

Post by temp0826 »

tpoacher wrote: post #28
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.

Agreed. If anything, it greatly criticised the rampant use of science-soundbytes devoid of proper context. "It's got electrolytes!"

>> "It's got electrolytes!"

One of my favorite lines in the movie. Whenever I hear anyone talking about how they only use "good" salt ("it's got micronutrients!"), I giggle and have to bring it up.

"You should be using water" "you mean like in the toilet??"

Post reply on HN