Will technology make us smarter?

Well, I think of what it took to be able to do my job when I first got started in television. There sure where a lot of people determined to have the job who couldn't work the equipment but I was stuck having them out there with me. Today people make YouTube video knowing much less than what I called goofs back when. In fact I hear some of the people talking and I know that person could never have finished that video back when you had to know anything.

So I say the technology didn't make anyone smart or dumb in that case, it just made it possible for dumb people to push the smart people out.

Not for most people.
Example: Kids don't know how to read and they don't have to learn, because:
Videos are available on any topic made by everyone and not just daunting TV people
The fount of knowledge is
'The YouTube'

Just a funny thing i seen:
"I don't believe in science"
Wrote in internet...

Dauntless said:

Well, I think of what it took to be able to do my job when I first got started in television. There sure where a lot of people determined to have the job who couldn't work the equipment but I was stuck having them out there with me. Today people make YouTube video knowing much less than what I called goofs back when. In fact I hear some of the people talking and I know that person could never have finished that video back when you had to know anything.

So I say the technology didn't make anyone smart or dumb in that case, it just made it possible for dumb people to push the smart people out.

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I agree with you in most cases. "Dumb" not the term but maybe you might say not trained in that field. They might be much smarter in other fields than you but able to stumble their way in your field.

Smarter? Not too sure on that term. Just makes it easier for most of us.

Dan

I think our extensive use of technology in the world is selecting for intelligence in the same way that printed books did.

Anyone not capable of using a mobile phone or computer has the disadvantage of someone who cannot read. The better one can use these tools, the more advantage one has over others.

Those working in the technology field have huge salaries compared to everyone else.

There will be more tools developed in the future which will become a requirement for success.
Economics and technology are both selecting for IQ.

neptronix said:

I think our extensive use of technology in the world is selecting for intelligence in the same way that printed books did.

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I think if you use the term "technology" to mean all technology rather than just information technology featuring a user interface, that's true-- and it has already selected us for intelligence. But if you're suggesting that having up-to-date familiarity with consumer software is more of a sign of intelligence than being good at pattern weaving, porting cylinder heads, mixing alloys, or wiring relay networks, that would be incorrect.

IT has allowed folks of moderate to low intelligence to display more functional competence than they did a generation or two ago, and that's a good thing. But it sure isn't selecting for intelligence, or corresponding intelligence with financial success. Most of the overpaid people I meet in this overhyped boomtown aren't as smart as those who get underpaid for real work (unless you think intelligence and opportunism are the same, which I don't).

Well admittedly there has been this long push to get people into IT/web dev who aren't really qualified to handle the job well. So a lot of people in that space are indeed being fairly overcompensated by large companies. This is ultimately a competitive disadvantage against scrappy little teams with hi drive/IQ/etc. I am part of a team that develops an online university backend and 2 of us do the work of our competitor which has 100 employees doing the same thing and deploys more buggy code than we do... using tools far inferior to what we've developed to ensure maximum productivity.

I'd have to say i agree with the compensation bit. I'm told i shouldn't be charging less than 85/hr to do what i do otherwise i'll look cheap compared to my competitors. Instead of lowering my prices to what *i* think is realistic, i focus on providing high value.

Physical labor and trades are absolutely undercompensated and underappreciated. Ability to work with high tech things is going to be necessary for tradesmen in the future. There will be no more coal miners in the future but a lot of solar panel cleaners. What's dangerous for any tradesman's career is to not sharpen their skills with new technologies. A lot of tradespeople do that.. yet in the tech world it's common for things to change on a weekly basis.

I think what Chalo is saying about low intelligence gaining functional competence is probably bigger than he means. What we think of as smart and dumb has more to do with a sort of functional desirability than intelligence. So computers in general and the internet in particular has made art education far more profitable than it used to be. Read what was said about people so painfully useless as to be only good at art, in say the 60's or 70's. Overall the idea is that you don't have to be as good at something, because the technology will do it better than you can ever learn.

The instant IQ lesson is of the test being of 20 subgroups, learning which of those subgroups you score well on, and what people with such combinations tend to do well at. The idea of the idiot savant is he might have one really high score and everything else below average or even below worthwhile, so the one high score probably doesn't do him any good.

But as we saw previously in this very community, there are people who romanticize being Autistic, so people will protect them, be ashamed of admitting their shortcomings and let them use whatever talent they might display. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

turn off the grid for 2 months and see how many "smart" people are left

I don't know, sometimes the 'Smart' are just too spoiled to survive things like the Texas blackout, while the neanderthals eat the rats and crow of their superiority.

goatman said:

turn off the grid for 2 months and see how many "smart" people are left

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Yes, there is always that.

When you get down to it, we're all just critters trying to survive as best we can. Some will always do better than others.

Did the original poster delete it?

glitch in the matrix

Dauntless said:

Did the original poster delete it?

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Can not delete once a 2nd post has been posted. Can only edit.

nicobie said:

goatman said:

turn off the grid for 2 months and see how many "smart" people are left

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Yes, there is always that.

When you get down to it, we're all just critters trying to survive as best we can. Some will always do better than others.

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"They" say cock roaches will survive

No power for 2 months, let alone 2 days is horrifying.
Buy stocks in generator companies, hobby stores and companies who make models, puzzles, sporting equipment like bball, hockey, xcntry skiing.

markz said:

Dauntless said:

Did the original poster delete it?

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Can not delete once a 2nd post has been posted. Can only edit.

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Edited out completely.

neptronix said:

Well admittedly there has been this long push to get people into IT/web dev who aren't really qualified to handle the job well.

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Kind of like battlefield surgery by guys who aren't really doctors. Well, if you REALLY want to wait. . . .

But there's a reversal of that I encounter, where the people in the office don't really want qualified people around because they can't tell for sure who is or isn't anyway. So while there are plenty of at least modestly capable people the people sitting at the desk drinking coffee are pushing to have people who can't handle the job well around, maybe some sort of defense mechanism for their own job or something. So you can depend on them paying some people more than they're worth.

But the best way to be overpaid is to be bad at something nobody else can do at all.

markz said:

No power for 2 months, let alone 2 days is horrifying.
Buy stocks in generator companies, hobby stores and companies who make models, puzzles, sporting equipment like bball, hockey, xcntry skiing.

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You won't survive, but at least you'll die rich.

goatman said:

glitch in the matrix

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https://www.wpxi.com/news/investigates/fact-vs-fiction-can-covid-19-vaccine-change-your-dna-is-there-microchip/EO32K3NN35AAPEJ4PFGQEIVONA/

The rumor caught steam after Microsoft founder Bill Gates made a video talking about the mRNA vaccine. He did not say it would have a microchip, but he mentioned in a different forum that he thought “eventually” we could have “digital certificates” to show who got the vaccine.

That was a reference to a type of tattoo technology he’s helping to develop to hold vaccine records. Not microchips.

Both Pfizer and Moderna say unequivocally that there is no microchip in their vaccines.

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markz said:

goatman said:

glitch in the matrix

Click to expand...

https://www.wpxi.com/news/investigates/fact-vs-fiction-can-covid-19-vaccine-change-your-dna-is-there-microchip/EO32K3NN35AAPEJ4PFGQEIVONA/

The rumor caught steam after Microsoft founder Bill Gates made a video talking about the mRNA vaccine. He did not say it would have a microchip, but he mentioned in a different forum that he thought “eventually” we could have “digital certificates” to show who got the vaccine.

That was a reference to a type of tattoo technology he’s helping to develop to hold vaccine records. Not microchips.

Both Pfizer and Moderna say unequivocally that there is no microchip in their vaccines.

Click to expand...

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last line of the news story

He said it’s not a good idea to get the vaccine if you still actively have COVID-19. Wait until you’re recovered.

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Technology allows us to be smarter if they wish to be. There's an old proverb 'WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER'

If you want to read the definitive novel on smart and stupid, Alfred Bester's 'The Stars, My Destination.' It starts with you being told that our antihero is incredibly lazy and an implacable idiot, only willing to bother thinking or moving hard enough to get something to eat when he's hungry, etc. In spite of the fact they think he's actually got this great potential. The adventure he's about to go on. Amazing what a man can think and do when he becomes MOTIVATED. "VORGA! I KILL YOU FILTHY!"

If by chance you've read 'The Demolished Man,' (Another brilliant work) this was the next book after.