********** Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 20:36:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <cpat_private> To: <cpat_private> Subject: The Enduring Power of Stupidity The Enduring Power of Stupidity During the past five days I have read many essays. To me, all of them have missed a fundamental underlying point. There are two basic forces in the world: Intelligence and stupidity. Human intelligence generally is creative, and has the potential to enhance our lives. Stupidity almost always is destructive. A month ago, the power of stupidity was demonstrated on a routine basis when our president made an "ethical decision" that scientists should destroy small clumps of human cells by throwing them away, instead of using them in research to eradicate terrible diseases. This stupidity was justified by misinterpreting an archaic book of primitive myths. During the half-century that I have been alive, I've seen many similar examples of stupidity depriving us of the fruits of intelligence. Random examples include the misapplication of Marxism, the Vietnam war, the cold war, dismantling the US manned space program, eco-alarmism, and the war on drugs. No doubt every person has some favorite examples to add to this list. At the dawn of the 21st century, when Y2K was averted by a lot of smart people doing intelligent things to prevent the paralysis of modern society, I started to hope that intelligence was finally gaining an edge over stupidity. Here I am now, using a digital computer that not only facilitates my creativity as a writer, but also revolutionizes my ability to create music, videos, or graphics. Its connectivity has changed my entire working and social life. Its power has been almost totally beneficial, and it promises still greater benefits in the future. Computational molecular biology has the potential to eradicate all hunger and disease. Ultimately computational power should enable us to manipulate matter itself, enabling a new era of unlimited wealth while eliminating side effects such as pollution and global warming. We may also defeat death: I may die, but I believe my daughter has a chance to achieve biological immortality. At least, I used to believe this, until last Tuesday. On Tuesday I saw that stupidity still trumps intelligence. Those hijacked airplanes were an amazing feat of intelligent engineering, making the miracle of flight not only safe but universally accessible. The World Trade Center was a brilliantly innovative piece of architecture. Yet a handful of thugs armed with box cutters destroyed those fruits of intelligence within a few hours. The thugs, of course, were acting in accordance with their stupid misinterpretation of yet another archaic book of primitive myths. Regulatory stupidity facilitated the terrorist acts. According to the Washington Post, FAA regulations have always permitted knives up to 4 inches long on domestic flights, and all cockpit doors on all airplanes can be opened with the same master key. In any case, the doors are flimsy enough to be kicked open. At least 14 times since 1998, drunk or disturbed passengers have tried to force their way into airplane cockpits. They succeeded on 6 occasions. In 1999, a passenger on All Nippon Airways fatally stabbed a pilot. Thus, this country has pursued an aggressive, punitive foreign policy that was guaranteed to create enemies, yet took only cosmetic steps to protect its own citizens in a situation of notorious vulnerability. Worse, in the future, passengers will remain vulnerable (instead of being allowed access to tools of nonlethal self-defense such as tasers), while the foreign policy will become more aggressive, thus creating still more enemies. I'm old enough to remember how the unfettered, turbulent creativity of the 1960s dissipated in the ugly stupidities of a war in southeast Asia. I fear now that the incredible technological creativity of the past decade may be derailed by some equally stupid, unwinnable war in another remote, hostile country, causing socioeconomic chaos at home. I feel a great, overwhelming melancholy. The wonderful smart innovations in the past decade have empowered us in so many ways, yet we are still impotent compared with the techno- illiterates who claim a mandate to act stupidly on our behalf. The terrorists with box cutters, and the militants in the U.S. government, share two traits. They exercise power indiscriminately, and show no great love for technology. In fact, I believe they are hostile to it because they see how its intelligence threatens them. Their fear is justified. In the long term, I still believe that technology will eclipse dumb political power and render it obsolete. Alas, I no longer believe that I will see this happen within my lifetime. --Charles Platt ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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