Discussion When was the first time you realized people were stupid en masse??

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cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
26,155
15,575
136
Oh .. remembered another.

The Student Council.

Very early classes when we first got into it I was one of the first in rotation. Having attended a few meetings I remember thinking something along these lines "These people are delusional, they can get 1000 return on effort by navigating the rules rather that trying to change even the tiniest thing". That assertion guided my politics into adulthood until the kids turned up.
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
62,727
18,892
136
I saw something last night that sparked a memory for me, relevant to the topic.
The commercials for that "Guess Who?" game had animated faces on them in the 80s. They eventually had a disclaimer saying "game pieces do not actually talk", and I ended up seeing an interview on some program with a kid who had bought the game and apparently felt ripped off that they didn't talk. I was probably 10-12, and even then I was thinking "wow, how dumb is this kid?", and the fact that they'd had to update the commercial to make it clear was probably one of my earliest times of wondering just how many stupid people there were out there.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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That reminds me. Back in the old days when PCs were still starting to get popular, my family visited a doctor's house with whom we had good relations. I saw an old 286 PC all covered up in a room. I asked if it worked (was just a kid so it was a question more out of curiosity and passion to learn, rather than knowing anything about operating a PC). The doc said, a rich patient of his bought it with much excitement. Then found out that he couldn't actually talk to it to make it do whatever he wanted. So he gave the PC to the doc who also wasn't tech savvy. I wonder if that PC ever saw any proper usage or just ended up in some landfill.
 
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Amol S.

Platinum Member
Mar 14, 2015
2,577
780
136
November 8, 2016
Other than this date, in terms of locally.... recently from NYC Mayoral election polls.
7pm tonight is going to be horror comedy for at least an hour or two. Wish me and everyone in NYC good luck in watching the debates.
I just don't get why people want a man as a mayor who used tax payer money, did a bunch of honk a donks, and made some terrible decisions during a viral outbreak.
 

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
13,259
4,035
136
You can save yourself effort by never linking me to anything AI-oriented :)
Not saying Dragon was good, but I'm not sure how much voice control software was even out there for a 286.
one of my favorite shows growing up was Computer Chronicles, which showcased tech long before it became mainstream (i.e. Windows 95).

Back in the 1980s, they would have covered voice recognition software if it existed. Once in a while, I'll watch an episode just for nostalgia.

The roots of today's everyday tech can be incredibly old. For example, AI originated with LISP research from the 1960 and before 1985, Computer Chronicles had an episode about "expert systems."
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
72,818
33,830
136
one of my favorite shows growing up was Computer Chronicles, which showcased tech long before it became mainstream (i.e. Windows 95).

Back in the 1980s, they would have covered voice recognition software if it existed. Once in a while, I'll watch an episode just for nostalgia.

The roots of today's everyday tech can be incredibly old. For example, AI originated with LISP research from the 1960 and before 1985, Computer Chronicles had an episode about "expert systems."
I remember my uncle, a Chem E, explaining expert systems to me in the mid-80s. At that time, they were custom built PCs that came loaded with industry specific software. In the 90s, expert systems were pre-conditioned Monte Carlo simulations. In the 2000s, we changed the name to “decision support systems” and traded out the Monte Carlo simulations for pre-trained response functions which could run on cheaper hardware.

Meanwhile, back in the 80s, Ma Bell deployed self-optimizing software allowing their switches to negotiate data routing. There was an article about it where the engineers were commenting that they really didn’t know what the switches were saying to each other anymore but that they worked a lot faster.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
26,023
12,266
136
When people HEARD with their own ears Trump demand 11,780 non-existent votes from the GA SoS and determined to give him a pass.
And was convicted in Federal court of 34 counts of felonious fraud by a 12 person jury of his peers.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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Meanwhile, back in the 80s, Ma Bell deployed self-optimizing software allowing their switches to negotiate data routing. There was an article about it where the engineers were commenting that they really didn’t know what the switches were saying to each other anymore but that they worked a lot faster.
If anyone has taken a Boolean algebra course, they will have some idea on how optimization makes almost no sense. A bigger circuit and a smaller circuit will both receive the same inputs and blurt out the same outputs so the bigger circuit can be replaced with the smaller one. I think it's some kind of mental deficiency in our brains that causes us to design the bigger circuits in the first place thus requiring us to look for optimization opportunities. In other words, we are not as intelligent as we think we are.
 

Indus

Lifer
May 11, 2002
15,965
11,110
136
Probably my first day of public school.

Hmm you might have a point!

I still remember my first day in high school and hearing chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows. I was like is he stupid but it was a general belief held by many!
 
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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
15,142
10,039
136
I really don't believe/think/feel that the main issue is people being stupid. Most people are not stupid, genuine stupidity is very rare.

What has always struck me, and does so increasingly, is that mainstream culture is stupid. The prevailing ideology that you are lectured with from birth, and that pervades society, is just nonsense, that bears little relationship to real world experiences.

There's a tendency in our culture to massively over-rate anything that claims the authority of 'science', with particular emphasis on the right-wing political ideologies that call themselves "economics" and "psychology". When science displaced religion, the powerful classes just adapted and employed supposed "science" to further their interests the way they traditionally used religion.
 
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BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,615
2,023
126
I've encountered all sorts of stupid people in my life, but I've always been slow to react to them with that recognition.

But let's get something straight. An "Ignorant" person is not necessarily a "Stupid" person, if the ignorant person -- informed of his/her ignorance -- admits it and takes steps to reduce his ignorance. Even so, certain medical doctors I know have taken an inordinate time to catch up in their understanding of matters outside their field, and too many people think that medical doctors know everything, even if their knowledge may really be limited to their medical field.

Moving on. about 23 years ago, the local newspaper featured a spot on a controversy in the public schools. A local mother had sought to remove the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from a grade-school classroom, because her child had discovered that it contained a definition for the phrase "oral sex". Of course the child would not have pursued seeking the definition in the first place if he had not heard Jerry Falwell discussing the "epidemic of oral sex" on the TEE-VEE.

That same year, in the same local community, there had been an art exhibition featuring paintings by local artists. There was an oil painting of a nude woman in a Venus-de-Milo pose with very healthy breasts and their aureoles. A community outrage and protest arose to remove the painting from the exhibition, and I thought "Have you freaking people never seen pictures of Michelangelo's ceiling in the Sistine Chapel?"

And they want to degrade the public schools, encouraging people to enroll in their Christian day schools so they can perpetuate this nonsense!

But ask today's Canadians and Brits. They will tell you we live in a Stupid Country, with a Stupid President and his Stupid Cabinet.
 
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hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
26,023
12,266
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one of my favorite shows growing up was Computer Chronicles, which showcased tech long before it became mainstream (i.e. Windows 95).

Back in the 1980s, they would have covered voice recognition software if it existed. Once in a while, I'll watch an episode just for nostalgia.

The roots of today's everyday tech can be incredibly old. For example, AI originated with LISP research from the 1960 and before 1985, Computer Chronicles had an episode about "expert systems."
Yep. I've mentioned this before but the division of L3 (once part of Figgie Intl), Interstate Electronics Corp., probably had the first commercially available voice recognition tech way back in the early 80's. It was a commercial flop (no marketing abilities, and maybe too early).
Found this in the archives.

 
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MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
9,408
8,804
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Then don't watch some of the videos on youtube where they ask 20 something's questions like "what countries border the US", or "what contentment are we on". These people literally couldn't find that ass with both hands, and they are the next generation.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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Then don't watch some of the videos on youtube where they ask 20 something's questions like "what countries border the US", or "what contentment are we on". These people literally couldn't find that ass with both hands, and they are the next generation.
My favorite is a guy who asks two girls for $5 a simple addition question and both get it wrong and one girl asks the other, how did you get that??? And the other girl asks the guy, can I still have the $5?
 

DaaQ

Golden Member
Dec 8, 2018
1,993
1,433
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8th grade, when I was put into a Catholic School.

I came from the public system, had longer hair, and the supposed smartest kid in the class lost his test scores by 3 points to me. The SAT I think it was, anyway i got punished for beating their prized pupil, had to kneel every Wednesday during MASS. But I showed them Nuns. JUST BECAUSE I came from a public school, did not mean, their students were smarter.

Oh Sanji beat me in all the homework and classwork stuff, but I always thought it was about the tests, if you pass the tests, you were golden. I beat that 8 yr effer by 3 points without trying. It was epic the crushing.