They say one hand washes the other. What is smart for, or rather who is smart for? Smart is relative. Get rid of the stupid people and all you do is reduce the range and tweak the definition of the intelligence spectrum. Compressing the bell curve into a mere parabola doesn't end stupidity, it merely introduces novel relativism and balkanizes ever finer degrees of perceived and actual ability.
As for the stupid, we have a lot to thank them for. Most safety equipment is a direct result of some ingenious idiot decided to see "What happens if... ?" A great many legal precedents have been set because of some prototypical deployment of intense stupid.
Smart people make stuff. Then stupid people figure out how to break the stuff, if it can be set on fire or lodged in a bodily orifice, and the smart people observe and go away and make the necessary adjustments to make it stronger safer and less pointy. There's a definite synergy going on that, like it or not, has fundamentally structured and restructured almost every technology we have ever created. With the exception of personal computer operating systems [I'm looking at you, Mr Gates], the definite trend over time has been a slow but inexorable improvement that has become nigh on exponential. So your dad thinks he should be able to open a bazillion browser windows at once? Ok let's invent hyperthreading and program a predictive cursor tracker that dumps and loads data assets depending on the vector cone of a time dependent instruction buffer. What do you mean all the dribbling is shorting out the keyboards? Make them waterproof, and also test your bloodsugar levels at the same time.
I'm sure you clever people can see where I am going with this. We need stupidity. It's part of the design process for everything we do. Stupidity is ingenuity in the "opposite direction." I hear a lot of complaining about stupidity. But sometimes, you have to admire the sheer breathtaking "audacity" of it. From baby car seat to gun locks, if it wasn't for these bold and visionary pioneers of investigative self harm, these things would not be idiot proof.
And ironically as a result, a lot of smart people while their attention is on some highfalutin conceptual theory of psychoanalytical pseudo-bobbins or whatever, might accidentally hurt themselves or each other because it was assumed they would be smart enough to use the handbrake when required, or use the cheese slicer safely. Accident—or if you wanna call it stupidity, also happens to smart people.
As for the stupid, we have a lot to thank them for. Most safety equipment is a direct result of some ingenious idiot decided to see "What happens if... ?" A great many legal precedents have been set because of some prototypical deployment of intense stupid.
Smart people make stuff. Then stupid people figure out how to break the stuff, if it can be set on fire or lodged in a bodily orifice, and the smart people observe and go away and make the necessary adjustments to make it stronger safer and less pointy. There's a definite synergy going on that, like it or not, has fundamentally structured and restructured almost every technology we have ever created. With the exception of personal computer operating systems [I'm looking at you, Mr Gates], the definite trend over time has been a slow but inexorable improvement that has become nigh on exponential. So your dad thinks he should be able to open a bazillion browser windows at once? Ok let's invent hyperthreading and program a predictive cursor tracker that dumps and loads data assets depending on the vector cone of a time dependent instruction buffer. What do you mean all the dribbling is shorting out the keyboards? Make them waterproof, and also test your bloodsugar levels at the same time.
I'm sure you clever people can see where I am going with this. We need stupidity. It's part of the design process for everything we do. Stupidity is ingenuity in the "opposite direction." I hear a lot of complaining about stupidity. But sometimes, you have to admire the sheer breathtaking "audacity" of it. From baby car seat to gun locks, if it wasn't for these bold and visionary pioneers of investigative self harm, these things would not be idiot proof.
And ironically as a result, a lot of smart people while their attention is on some highfalutin conceptual theory of psychoanalytical pseudo-bobbins or whatever, might accidentally hurt themselves or each other because it was assumed they would be smart enough to use the handbrake when required, or use the cheese slicer safely. Accident—or if you wanna call it stupidity, also happens to smart people.
So hats off to you stupid people. You bear up under the pretentious ire of overly brained humans with astonishing resilience and gusto, and thanks to you the world is getting ever safer, smarter, and less pointy.
