this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023

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If Thanos had, instead of randomly wiping out 50% of all living things, he had instead in each species wiped out only the dumbest 50% what would the reaction of each avenger have been? (lemmy.myserv.one)

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

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Would they have all still fought against him?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Isaac Asimov, a very intelligent person, wrote a lengthy essay to the effect that he had no idea what intelligence was. He talked about how society would generally consider him more intelligent than the nearly illiterate man who repaired his car, and yet whenever something went wrong with his car he would go to his mechanic and listen to his advice as if it was being handed down from the mountaintop by Moses himself, because Isaac Asimov knew fuck all about car repair. He talked about how he thought that supposedly objective IQ tests were generally a series of gates designed by people already considered intelligent to keep themselves in power, and that they totally disregarded huge swaths of indispensable human knowledge and talent. Isaac Asimov, who has been published in literally every section of the Dewey Decimal System, concluded that he had no firm idea as to what exactly "intelligence" even was.

In short, how could one even define "the dumbest 50%"?

And that's why Thanos should have made everybody half as large as they once were.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The definition for intelligence changed over the last 2 centuries because we keep discovering how an animal can fit the definition, and intelligence was used to separate humans from animals. Now it's even worse because people are trying to separate AI from humans.

I like the concept laid out by Delany: in a novel he describe 3 levels of intelligence based on the understanding of various point of views, but it's not a ranking.

The first stage is simplex: people don't understand the science of the world, so everything is kind of magical but this concept of magic make the world hold itself and they can grasp everything and use everything with this conception of magic.

Second stage is complex: people have an understanding of science and they can explain many things, but not everything. And when they can't explain something, they can't cope with it, because they don't have the conceptual tools for it. Thus they will either deny this thing existence of plug it into their existing concepts by ignoring the feature that can't fit.

Third and last stage is multiplex : people can accept that there are theories different than the ones they know, ideas also. Point of views can shape the way you see the world, and even the scientific theories you have to explain the world can be seen as a point of view on the world, so changing this point of view can bring a new or different understanding of a phenomenon or thing or person. These points of view all coexist at the same time, none of them is more true than the other. Like the concept of magic, this allows to grasp, use or accept even the ununderstandable and the unknown, but with a better ability to understand than the simplex stage.

I like this model. But it's more a model for open-mindedness than intelligence. But maybe that's the thing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I love the entire story, then your very solid and succinct answer

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hang on, do you mean “with the least capacity to be smart,” or is he killing all the babies and children?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, the average newborn is smarter than the average politician, so maybe it's not as bad as we think.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bruh babies cant even talk or have object permanence, don't try to spin that as being smart.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I once convinced a 9 year old that dogs are just cats but older. Little humans are smart as hell 😎

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

50% was such a dumb number anyways.

It requires a single doubling to get back to where we were. To double, you'd need about 10 times a 7% growth. Probably within less than 100 years you'd be back at the same problem

Not to mention that when you murder a shit tonne of people, and when it's over you'll likely have lots of people getting babies, so you get a birth wave about 9 months later. That regrowth starts FAST.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the whole 50% depopulation is a flawed premise, of the hundred of thousands of years modern humans have existed that would throw total population back to... 1970

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yup. His movie motivation was dumbed down. The whole resources thing is stupid for exactly this reason.

In the comics, Thanos became infatuated with the Marvel Universe incarnation of Death. ...And naturally he figured that if he killed half the universe at once, he'd get her attention. (cause girls love it when a boy makes a huge amount of work for them...)

Anyway, his plan was still moronic, but "manchild does stupid thing to impress girl" is a classic for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ant-Man: Well come on, wait, you know, there are different kinds of intelligence, right? Please someone tell me I'm not making that up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanos could have literally chosen 1000 other options that were better than killing 50% of all living things, and I'm sure nobody would have disagreed!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Why couldn't Thanos just wish for unlimited resources? Or universal peace? Or literally any number of things that would have solved the problems he was trying to solve without anyone getting hurt or never existing? His method was stupid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think that the motive should be allowed to be dumb, and their mistake was making Thanos appear lucid and competent. They really should have leaned into "the mad titan" thing and made him act more like an unhinged despot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

His method was stupid

He would be part of the dumbest 50%.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, because it’s so morally defensible to eliminate all of the developmentally disabled and republicans.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

I'd bet good money that most republicans are smarter than AOC