Last night I watched Idiocracy. Despite the exaggerated satire, I felt there is no other movie that relates to the situation and direction the world is heading to. If you look around you will find evidence everywhere. From quality of education to popular TV shows to the sheer incompetence of the financial and healthcare systems. Whether it is profit driven greedy corporations bombarding senseless advertising to every demographic, or stupid people breeding like rats, it is evident that the human race as a whole is getting no smarter.

Look at the senseless media explosion and the priorities of news consumption by the masses. A celebrity scandal is perceived to be ten times more important than the serious geographical, social, political and economic issues we face today. Why ? Because the former is a no-brainer entertainment while the latter demands some maturity. It is all about popular culture now. The government does not care since the big guys are well fed by the profit making corporations and can woefully ignore the smart and geek minority.

Creative destruction is rampant in the modern technology world as well. Social networks, facebook, twitter. Everyone is busy doing status updates of the most trivial things in their lives. It is a big cacophony. No one listens. No one has any attention span anymore. How important you are is proportional to how many followers you have. And anyone who has a decent number of followers is a “guru” or a “ninja”. It is unlike anything we have ever seen.

Look at all the usability initiatives that go so far as to make common sense optional. Everything should be so easy that even a caveman can do it. There you go. Products and services must be made to appeal to the dumbest people on earth. And then there is the biggest joke of legal machinery here in the west. Fine prints everywhere to prevent lawsuits for when people hurt themselves by accident or by lack of common sense. Beware, the knife is sharp. Beware, the coffee is hot enough to burn your skin. Beware, you can fall from the ladder. You get it. How about a generic “Beware, you can possibly kill yourself if you are stupid enough to be omitted by natural selection” label in anything and everything ? Ok, I digress.

When I look at the kids here in the west it makes me sad. No genuine curiosity, no manners, no respect for elders. Despite free public schools, the abysmally low standard of curriculum and lack of discipline from parents are making them far from the generation we need in the future. The amount of tax money that goes to pay for the wasteful education system here is just incredible. The developing countries are catching up as well. It makes me feel incredibly lucky to have grown up in a small place, with strict discipline and some real education. I actually had to work hard to get into one of the best undergrad colleges in the country. The entrance exam was one of the most difficult in the whole world. But, as I found out later, those tests are significantly diluted by now to bring average students with money to fill up increased seats and new colleges. It is downright disappointing.

Sometimes I think we humans are just another species who are on this planet for a limited length of time. Our collective intelligence might already have peaked a few years back. And while we still produce newer technologies, the proportion of smart people is dwindling in our societal system. Idiocracy could be awfully accurate. I just hope I won’t be there when the tipping point is reached.

Relevant reads:
Worldwide dumbing down: it’s happening
Dumbing down: the awful truth