Unpopular Opinion

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People should be taught in school that humans are not that smart, and that there are many comparable species in intelligence. (self.unpopularopinion)

submitted 1 year ago by WheeGeetheCat to c/[email protected]

55 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This opinion is based on reading people's thoughts on the internet and remembering what I was taught in my own time in school (where they essentially stumbled into teaching that humans were some kind of 'peak' of the evolutionary process)

I think people have waaaaayyyy too much faith in human intelligence and it's leading to the destruction of the world.

1- People keep thinking a scientist or a 'rich entrepreneur' is going to come up with some magic bullet to save the world, if we taught more about how other animals have tools, language, larger and older and more complex brain structures than us - People might realize it's similar to believing that dolphin will arise from the sea with some idea to stop climate change

2- we keep participating in these systems that have been created under the assumption that we are 'making progress'. I would argue that the minority of human invention represents real progress.

3- It leads to undervaluing the earth and taking it for granted. We worship ourselves as gods (literally). Almost everything you have wasn't invented by humans. It was the result of billions of years of selective design. Yet we teach as if things we harvest from nature were 'invented' by humans. In reality, we often have no way to produce or even of conceive of these things without a natural example.

Thanks for reading

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[–] ThrowawayPermanente 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Disagree. We're by far the most intelligent species on the planet, but this is kind of like the AI problem - being intelligent doesn't make us benevolent or immune to screwed up incentives, and it doesn't automatically solve all coordination problems.

[–] WheeGeetheCat 1 points 1 year ago

I might agree we are 'intelligent without being wise' but then I would say that THAT should be taught.

Currently we function as the equivalent of the neighborhood mad scientist. Obsessed with their own ideas but actively destroying everything and everyone including themselves. Smart not wise.