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Comment by Mauro Panigada (mauro-panigada) on Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses. · 2020-10-16T11:53:33.936Z · LW · GW

I am not exactly sure about stupidity-traits which can make people actually stupider, but I was thinking the other day about this: our modern civilization, or whatever it should be called, asks the average individuals less than it asked in the past (both mentally and physically). It seems like everything needs to be "easy for everyone", to be simplified because maybe people can't understand this or that, can't do this or that: everything must be leveled down to the lowest common denominator. Treat people like stupid ones, and they will become stupid --- maybe just because they won't find in reality any stimulus to push the use of their brain; or, in general, to challenge themselves. Thanks to our modern times, almost everyone can live or just survive with his/her "mediocrity", and the System (let me leave this to readers' fantasy) itself doesn't require more than this; exceptions aren't so common once their number is compared to the multitude living on  this planet.