you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]evildaleks 1 point2 points


That's a very "slippery slope" argument. You could say the same thing about any sort of privilege - attractive people don't have to work to make people like them, leading to lower social skills; kids born from rich families don't have to work, so they have poor work ethnics. No doubt that there are disadvantages to being intelligent, but in general - would you rather be attractive or normal? From a rich family or a normal family? The same line extends to intelligence: would you rather be born above average intelligence, or completely on the line?

Intelligence is a privilege, not a right. Because you are intelligent, you are given so much more opportunities, from the schools you're accepted to and the career you fall in. It has its flaws, but is an advantage nonetheless.

[–]IROK -1 points0 points


Don't you find it somewhat conceited that we as humans view intelligence to be some kind of privilege? After all, it's not exactly proven that intelligence is in fact evolutionarily beneficial. The most successful (in survival) species on the planet is merely a giant tube that eats and shits.

Regardless, I agree that my argument isn't logically foolproof. However, you seem to be looking only a small portion of an entire argument. I don't know about you, but I still had to work to get my own opportunities. Intelligence has very little to do the opportunities one gets in their life. What if someone were hyper intelligent, but didn't do a damn thing with it? Regardless of how intelligent the person is, you benefit only by utilizing it.

Let's look at a couple of examples: Alfred is a very intelligent boy that aspires to become a mathematician. He works through school, gets his Ph.D, and gets a very well paying job.

Billy is mentally retarded and has to be taken care of daily. Everyday he has all his needs taken care of by others. He doesn't have to do a thing.

Let's say both of them are on the same level of happiness. Who is to say which is better?

Intelligence is a tool.

[–]realityobserver 3 points4 points


And it's the tool by which we build all our other tools. To say it doesn't matter or doesn't benefit us directly is in direct contradiction to current reality where our species has been massively successful by exploiting the "smartest ape" niche.

[–]evildaleks 0 points1 point


Yes, thank you. I find it utterly ridiculous that we are even having the debate of whether or not being intelligent has benefits.