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posted: July 26, 2024
tl;dr: Old man yells at cloud...
This is going to come across as an “old man yells at cloud” post. However, having recently passed a milestone birthday, I think I’ve earned the right.
We’re getting stupider. The evidence is everywhere. Our nation’s top public health officials write a paper titled “A Flu Virus Risk Worth Taking” and years later a lab-leaked pandemic virus kills millions, disrupts the world for years, and changes life and lives forever. The response to the pandemic is to treat kids as “collateral damage”, as the Director of the NIH later admits.
Parts are falling off airplanes in mid-flight: the ones that are not grounded, that is. A Presidential candidate is nearly assassinated and the Director of the Secret Service blames a sloped rooftop. A buggy CrowdStrike software update is rolled out and planes can’t fly, banks cannot do transactions. A laptop filled with incriminating evidence is blamed on Russian intelligence and the President calls its owner “the smartest man I know”. And just when you think our political discourse cannot get any lower, a $354.9 million dollar fine is meted out for a loan that was paid back and a misdemeanor is trumped up into 34 felonies. Norms are violated, new precedents are set. Our elites have always failed us, but it is happening with greater regularity.
Why are we getting stupider? Here are my reasons:
The response to COVID-19
A COVID-19 infection appears to cause brain fog in a small percentage of cases. But what really damaged our collective intelligence was the response to COVID-19.
The lockdowns started in the United States in mid-March 2020. This was a few months before graduation for most colleges and high schools. One of the earliest actions taken was to draft final-year medical school students into immediate service, and award them their degrees. While their service may have been needed, it sent a strong message that the last few months of medical school don’t matter. Medical students in the Class of 2020 didn’t receive as much instruction as medical students in the Class of 2019. Shouldn’t we expect this to have an impact on their subsequent performance?
This policy was soon copied at all levels of the educational system. Yes, there were hastily arranged Zoom classes, but not all subjects can be taught purely online. Attendance was spotty. Tests were canceled, and many grades became pass/fail. Degrees were handed out anyway based on duration of enrollment, not proof of the attainment of specific knowledge. School closures persisted, and students received subpar educations. This was reflected in lower standardized test scores. The cohort of students that had their education impacted by the response to COVID-19, the so-called “Zoom schoolers”, did not receive as good an education as their predecessors. This has a lifelong negative impact.
Drugs
There were stoners in my high school, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were not the folks who finished at the top of the class and got into the best colleges. Marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug, it’s the opposite. Habitual use lowers IQ scores measurably. I work in a profession where I need every functioning brain cell I can muster. I understand the human need to relax and disconnect from reality on occasion, but chronic use of drugs and alcohol leads to chronic underperformance. With recreational marijuana legal in many states, habitual usage is up. Politicians used to clamp down on the drug, now many encourage its use. We’re becoming “Stoner Nation”, and it's hurting our collective intelligence.
Attacks on meritocracy
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
That was the ideal when I was growing up. Institutions were supposed to be meritocratic: the best performers were supposed to be given the best opportunities and rewards. Performance was supposed to be objective, based on measurements that were hopefully visible to all. Other factors were not supposed to be considered. Nowadays, other factors are very much being considered in most institutions. Decisions are made with the aim of creating a group of the chosen that “looks like America”.
There’s one last bastion of meritocracy: professional sports. The vast majority of fans want to see their favorite teams acquire the best players regardless of any other considerations. Teams that fail to do so, for whatever reason, are not as successful. Does anyone want to watch an NBA team that looks like America?
Continuous interruptions
Having worked in the Internet industry for most of my professional life, I’m not about to cast aspersions on my life’s work. The Internet makes it possible to access information on a scale that was purely in the realm of science fiction when I was a kid. It also connects people together, and enhances communications. I think the Internet, on net, is a positive force in society.
That said, there are downsides. Continuous notifications and addictive apps can inhibit people from giving their undivided attention to a topic and thinking deeply about it. Doomscrolling can limit the amount of time available to read books and do concentrated study. There’s more information than ever available to us, and it is much easier to access, but we’re not taking full advantage of it.
I don’t believe that artificial intelligence is going to do all our thinking for us anytime soon. We still need people willing to put their minds towards productive purposes. And we need more of them than we currently have.