I think this is something I started writing about last year but scrubbed before posting it. This scrubbing and failure to post ideas is so common now it fails to stick in my memory when it happens.
The idea that natural selection does not favour the intelligent, that to be dramatic, for humans to be intelligent is not what nature intended (yes, yes I know the universe is indifferent and devoid of conscious guiding thought, but anthropomorphising things is fun). This idea came to me while reading Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins. While believing in evolution I had never actually read anything pertaining to the subject, so when I saw it in a used book store for $6 I didn't think twice about buying it, despite (and this makes me cringe*) not enjoying The God Delusion when I read it. So now that you know the limit of my knowledge, let us continue with the idea, I had once felt so passionately about sharing.
A common belief amongst the people I associate with and the class that I belong to is that the wrong people are breeding. Those who should be breeding, the intelligent, professional types are having one, two or no children while the stupid and poor (a bad choice of words, I know) are popping out kids like they are going out of style.
Evolution, from what I can make out, works as follows: random genetic mutation combines with natural selection to eventually change the characteristics of a species. Natural selection is the process of weeding out unsuccessful genes and genetic mutations and preventing them from breeding. Success is surviving to breeding age and passing on your genes and their mutations (preferably multiple times) while failure is dying before you have had a chance to breed.
You see where I am going with this don't you?
Scientists believe that intelligence comes in part from out genetic make up as well as the environment we are brought up in. Extremely intelligent people are rare, therefore one can assume they are a result of genetic mutation. This is an unsuccessful mutation as they either do not breed at all or they have one, two or at the most three kids which is no where near enough to balance out the five or six (or eight) that the Vicky Pollards of the world will birth during their breeding lifetime. Combine this with the fact that people, from what I can tell, tend to seek out their intellectual equals when it comes to breeding, exponential growth and so on.
So at worst the intelligent will breed themselves to extinction and at best will continue to be a minority. The geeks will never inherit the Earth.
So really the joke is on the people who judge and award The Darwin Awards.
*Admitting to reading The God Delusion, is what makes me cringe.
