Thierry Muller
7 HN mentions · mentioned in 7 months, 2017–2024
2:54 · 3.1M views · Oct 24, 2013
The opening sequence of the film Idiocracy, which satirically shows less intelligent people out-breeding more intelligent ones. It runs about three minutes.
HN uses it as shorthand in birth-rate and genetics threads, usually half-jokingly and sometimes with pushback that it oversimplifies.
7 comments from Hacker News
I understand what you mean but I'm always frustrated when I see Idiocracy brought up in these discussions. Idiocracy is fine if you view it as a light satirical comedy but if you take it seriously to talk about politics it has very sinister undertones. For one thing it's extremely classist, throughout the movie popular culture is seen as fodder for dumb people while high culture if for clever people. Beyond that it also says that, effectively, dumb people and poor people are the same thing (as exemplified by the "white trash" segment at the start of the movie) and that dumb, poor people are bound to breed dump, poor people (and apparently they do that a lot) while clever people would breed other clever people (but they don't do it because... reasons). So social determinism taken to the limit. I mean just look at this intro: this video What are examples of clever people? Darwin, Beethoven and Da Vince. Examples of "degeneracy"? A girl in skimpy clothes, wrestling and a... woman with boxing gloves? Because clearly "panem et circenses" is a novel concept. Then we go to say "with no natural predators to thin the herd, we began to simply began to reward those who reproduced the most and left the intelligent to become an endangered species". So we're now talking full-on eugenics. Also Beethoven was well known for fending packs of wolves in his youth, proving his evolutionary superiority. And I'm this point I'm literally one minute into the movie and I could go on and on and on. At bes
Every time I hear a rational, intelligent person expounding why they decided not to procreate, I have to think about the opening scene of Idiocracy: this video Don't get me wrong, everybody is free to make their own decisions (and I would be the last demanding from anybody to go through parenthood), but sometimes it seems as if intelligence is not an evolutionary advantage. There are whole subcultures of people who spend their life breeding, while especially the DNA lines of intelligent, working women just seem to end there. And it does not help that there are all these seemingly rational argumentation lines against children, e.g. about environmental impact. If you can pass on your education (and maybe some intelligence-related DNA), it may help society more overall in the end. Think of a big birthday party of an educated grandparent you may have visited - this procreation thing is an exponential function.
Sounds like a sure-fire way to accelerate idiocracy... this video "Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most - and left the intelligent to become an endangered species" Edit: For those that seem to think I'm calling people who have children stupid - idiocracy is a satirical movie. I would suggest you actually watch the link i posted (i.e. at least "read" the comment before you reply to it...)
For reference, see Idiocracy opening sequence... this video Smart people delay, wait and then end up not... "dumb" people just hook up and go to town... I think the fact that Evolution is still spreading "successful" genes and "unsuccessful" genes become less prevalent is obvious. What isn't obvious, is as Idiocracy so succinctly puts it, is that gene that are "successful" doesn't necessarily translate to intelligence, good decisions, stable lifestyle, etc.
Reminds me of the opening scene of the movie Idiocracy. It makes sense that those that can afford the greater priced homes are thoughtful enough not to have lots of children. this video