h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cripes - I started this forum looking for ideas for cool inventions and it turns into a eugenics debate.

Sheesh...

What about clothes that change colour depending on your mood?

A view screen that enables you to see any event in history as it really was?

CR

I must say I also thought "ohmygod" when I read this post, although I'm not easily shocked... My first thought was : maybe it should be "a machine that prevents people with an IQ of more than 140 from breeding"! This is obviously the same kind of b******t, and it makes as much (or as little!) sense as the other line, since people with high IQ's are often quite anti-social and about 9 percent of the very intelligent men have autistic behaviour. (this is not a joke and it's not meant as a sexist remark, it's based on all too real statistics)

... I only explain this to make clear I think you *cannot* and *shouldn't* ever judge people's lives only by measuring there IQ...

h³

BTW Woodpigeon, I like the history-machine! That would be VERY interesting! It's one of the things that have always bothered me... We are just supposed to accept whatever we find in our highschool history books, no matter how inaccurate it might be...

good one!

How about something which prevents people who believe in IQ tests from breeding?

Arthur Clarke postulated that if a "history viewer" were available, all the world's major religions would collapse over night, with the possible exception of "an enlightened form of buddhism".

And what's wrong with autistic behaviour?

j/k - I know what you mean

Yes, and some of the major "isms", i.e. ultra-nationalism, racism, sectarianism, etc. would be in big trouble too. Not a bad thing, if you ask me.

Mind you, there wouldn't be too many secrets left...

CR

A great thought invention:

A cordless hosepipe

'Nuff said.

hee hee... you know, i dont even know what my IQ is gosh, this has to be the first forum i have EVER seen on h2g2 where the word "breeding" was mentioned without a smiley of some sort... there. or even a

Pardon my ignorance cloviscat...but what is a hosepipe?

WOW, I got "ohmygod", a couple of "yikesing", and "this is easily the most offensive posting I've ever seen on h2g2", and all of this for little ole me. I am impressed. LOL thank you to all.

I was accused of "it might be pure discrimination against the bottom 50% of people", I wonder if I said an IQ below 85 if I would have gotten such response. (an IQ below 85 starts the mildly retarded range) One even posted "a machine that prevents people with an IQ of more than 140 from breeding" Shame on you Honey, Shame, shame, shame. if you thought it was wrong for me to post what I said then you shouldn't have posted that. I was even accused by Xanatic that I "want to kill stupid people" LOL (I haven't so amused in a awhile)

Please note that I peppered my posting with lots of smileys.

Mostly

PS. Why didn't anybody stick up for the politicians who also wouldn't by allowed to breed.

I can't believe people actually thought that you were completely serious about that.

I think I made it pretty clear that I thought the remark was in bad taste and inappropriate whether it was meant seriously or not.

Mikey

i think i'll go breed now.



*honey where's that IQ meter?*
hmmmm...

its suddenly gotten so cold in here...brrrrrr.....

Dear Woodpigeon (I hope that's right ), I am sorry your entertaining thread was wrecked by some not-terribly thoughtful or humorous ideas. I apologise, but I feel the need to respond to their stupid and ill-advised remarks.

I'll try to get back ON topic in a later posting.


Intellect (particularly as measured by IQ tests) does not equal and is not related to Humanity. The two youths recently released into society in England, from juvenile incarceraton, would no doubt meet your criteria for intellect. Genius and sociopathy are very highly correlated, as someone has already pointed out.
Mostly Harmless, Phreako, and others, your 'humour', or argument, or whatever is based upon a faulty premise, and you who call yourself 'Mostly Harmless' are espousing a position that is Very Dangerous. If you said people with IQs below 25, I would *still* defend their right as humans to be human within the confines of their ability. Your comment about IQs lower than 85 -which is not, as it happens, 'borderline retarded' (faulty data, too)- does not suggest you were 'joking'.

There is a significant body of evidence to suggest that IQ is:
a) not any sort of reliable measure of intelligence (Thank you Gnomon for your 2d. )
b) NOT necessarily hereditary: extremes tend to occur more often in children of older parents, whose germ cells have been damaged/mutated over time (or in parents of any age, whose germ cells have been damaged/mutated by abuse of drugs/alcohol and other environmental toxins).
c) correlated with anything other than the ability to take tests.

Of course, the notion of 'eugenics' has been around for a long time, and supported by quite a number of people. Adolf Hitler was a standout example. White-Supremacists tried forcible sterilisation of 'retards' (and African-American teenage girls, who were even less human than the 'retards' in the eyes of those fanatics) in the 1950s in the US South, too.

Have you considered the ramifications of preventing half the human species from breeding? Would that mean that 'borderline retards' with IQs below 150 could be kept on as Deltas*, to 'clean toilets' so intelligent people (like me: IQ=187 since you seem to think that is significant...) did not have to waste our time?

This seems like an excellent scheme for annihilating the entire species within a couple of generations.

For people whose attention spans are a bit truncated.

You want people to believe this discussion is intended as humour (albeit in very bad taste), right? Even so, those participating in it, from the 'preventing the below average from breeding' position, have made themselves look like incredible fools in public. By their own argument, said fools should obviously have their gonads nuked to prevent them from breeding.

I recommend you read Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, and ask the necessary ethical questions:
How do you know YOU would not be edited out?
Who has the right to make such decisions?
What happens when someone assumes "eugenicists" are more dangerous than they are worth?'

An artist, a genius, and it so happens also an uncle of mine died at Auschwitz because of one man's ideal of a 'master race' (into which the inventor of the ideal did not fit). You are treading very thin ice here!

This is quite possibly the *stupidest* discussion (between Phreako and Mostly Harmless, with some help from a couple of other self-designated 'intelligent' people) I have seen at h2g2. Is that grounds for getting these infant fascists sterilised? (No offense to young persons, the 'infant' refers to the level of 'humour', and the level of analysis at work here.)

Arpeggio, who along with Mikey, Lucinda, Gnomon, et al does not find this sort of humour 'funny', assuming it was meant as such... and your protesting too much has not made me believe it was, for LeKZ

If this was nonserious, how about you retract it, as a way of preserving any respect you might have had here? If this was originally serious, which I believe it was, how about you defend it using accurate, thought-out arguments (there are some, 'eugenics' is an old and much-discussed topic), *elsewhere*, and let this thread get back on topic?

*The toilet-scrubbers and social slaves in Aldous Huxley's /Brave New World/ were called 'Deltas'.

A posting filter that deletes any off topic posting.

Mostly

Mikey,

Right behind you on this one.

Arpeggio and the rest of LeKZ

__________________________________________________________________

Things that should be invented:

A device to keep the 'post' button from working if any person is saying something that is simply a Bad Idea (I know this from personal experience ).

Something that automatically doube-checks facts before one makes foolish and/or inaccurate and easily refuted statements in public fora.

An automatic IQ reader which reads and displays the writer's IQ for everyone, if anyone uses 'IQ' in any format for any reason.

An automatic 'degree of humanity' reader same.

Posting Retraction Spray, if all else fails. Just spray the monitor. (Only works on things written by oneself, or we would have a censorship problem ).

Walk a Mile in My Moccassins Spray, to spray through modem at anyone who should try it sometime.

Been There, Did That, Grew Out of It, as the only way to avoid Walk a Mile...

Attack Smileys...only work if deserved (how 'deserved' is determined: does this particular action/behaviour/concept add to or detract from the total sum of human decency and/or suffering?) This could be used in RL, too, with Attack Memories... or just a can of Insensitive Clod B-Gone Spray.

Dr Freeman's Odour-Eaters to line the insides of people's brains, and definitely mouths...

Vomiting computer monitors, for people who try to post sick web sites, violence-endorsing product sales sites, and stupid/obnoxious BBS postings, to puke back the exact measure of disgust caused by the words and actions promoted.

Prowling Attitude Detectors with a spectrum of coloured dyes with which people are sprayed IRL so everyone knows. I think this could be fun, and a neato way to meet people with shared attitude problems.

------------
On a completely different note:

An UnLoseMe device for keys, glasses, change purses, pens, etc.

Automobile locks who know and obey their masters/mistresses (only).

Self-filling petrol tanks.

Junk food that tastes like junk food and is junk food but is much better for you than health food.

Allergy-Free Springtimes.

A way to reason with your pets when necessary.

Puzzles which are exactly the right degree of difficult for the mood you are in at the time.

Temporary-Rent-a-Skill services, for when you just *have* to be able to play the bassoon for a particular occasion, do not want to learn how, and do not wish to pursue bassoon-playing.

Permanent-Know-a-Skill purchases (very expensive) for people who are just not good at languages, but need to know Uzbeki now and forever.

Skill-Barter online trading: okay, you let me use 2 hours of concert-piano-playing in exchange for 4 hours of my culinary skills (values to be set by *experts* in absolutely nothing, who have to test all skills offered in trade.)

A Wish-to-Horse device for the excessively wishful. Stables not provided.

All the 2cents, 2d, etc ever offered one, in CASH.



A device to prevent dust from settling on any surface, which instead takes it apart at the subatomic level.

Something that automatically doube-checks spelings to.

ok, I want to "officially" mention that i found the do not breed remark to be slightly tasteless.. but i wanted to try and keep the humor thing going. hey, i tried...

anyway, i would pay serious serious money to rent-a-skill, or even trade-a-skill, although perhaps typing is the only skill i have worth marketing...

i still am wondering what a hosepipe is... anyone out there to enlighten me?