A Study in Stupidity

Well, Duh

Stupidity is an inherent characteristic of the human race. It is not just that humans are stupid: stupidity permeates every facet of the human experience. Human society is full of stupid, as is human history, human politics, human economics and human anything else.

This study does not seek to question whether or not humanity is stupid: this is a given, something that is instantly obvious to all but the... er, dumbest of us. What this study aims to do is to challenge the basic, underlying assumptions of stupidity, to analyze and categorize the many forms of stupidity, and to ask the most paramount questions: why are we so damned stupid, and where will our stupidity ultimately take us?

The Stupid Gene

Scientists have thus far been unsuccessful in isolating the genes responsible for stupidity (though their efforts have been moderately more successful than attempts at isolating intelligence genes). However, the history of monarchy offers tantalizing hints that stupidity is inherited. Taking into account the ubiquitous manifestation of stupidity at all levels of humanity, the prevailing theory argues that multiple discrete stupidity genes make frequent, sporadic appearances in random generations of all human genetic lineages. These stupidity genes release stupidity hormones that suppress native intelligence. It has been suggested that even the most intelligent of people have stupidity genes, expressed in reaction to certain stimuli. Known stimuli include falling in love, entering a reality television competition, or talking to strangers online.

Intelligence, on the other hand, is rarely inherited: the chances of an intelligent parent having a similarly intelligent offspring is lower than the mean of low probabilities arbitrarily assigned by random people pontificating on their blogs.

Furthermore, genetic inheritance analysis indicates that the chances of stupid genes proliferating in the human gene pool are much higher than that of intelligence genes. The reasoning is simple. Intelligent people are often far more interested in intellectual pursuits such as the arts, literature, playing RPGs and so forth than they are in having sex. Stupid people, on the other hand, are less distracted by these things and hence are more likely to engage in sex. Ceteris paribus, stupid people will always outbreed intelligent people.

Survival of the Stupidest

Contrary to common belief, stupidity is in fact a positive selective mechanism for advancement in human society.

The Dunning-Kruger effect demonstrates that stupid people are far more confident of their own abilities than intelligent people are. In general, the dumber you get, the more confident you are of your competence. Thus, in fields where self-confidence is more important than actual ability - such as politics, motivational speaking and management - stupid people will get to the top every time.

Evidence strongly suggests that you will almost always inevitably end up working for someone stupider than you.

The Future of Stupidity

In terms of intelligence, humans are the opposite of social insects: as individuals we can be clever and sensible, but when we amass, we create a hivemind of Collective Stupidity. According to the Pratchett formula of mass idiocy, the intelligence of any given crowd is equal to the IQ of the dumbest person in the crowd divided by the number of people in that crowd.

Einstein has said that human stupidity is unlimited. However, before the development of mass communication technology, our collective stupidity was bounded by geographical limitations, only reaching brief peaks of stupidity during select moments such as national elections. Now, with the advent of the internet, human stupidity can finally soar to new, unimaginably idiotic heights. The internet enables the instantaneous, simultaneous communication of millions of stupid people across the world, creating a global overmind of unlimited idiocy. Everyone gets dumber online, communicating in truncated, grammatically mutilating grunts and gestures. The few shiny points of intelligence in this sea of stupidity - the poignant blogs, the thoughtful forum discussions - are drowned out by the chorus of idiotic comments, stupid flamewars and mindless trolling.

We are now hurtling into an era of hitherto unknown dimensions of stupidity. Already, programmers are working hard on the creation of artificial stupidity, and our astronomers are searching the skies for possible signs of extraterrestrial stupidity. Soon, humanity will attain the ultimate apex of idiocy, as our minds merge into a single, moronic consciousness. At long last, the Singularity of Stupid will be upon us.