3 ms·
As it stands, I have a hunch that the people at the top of governments tend to be among the more highly intelligent. I'll even give that to our leaders, but als
by analog31 1y ago
As it stands, I have a hunch that the people at the top of governments tend to be among the more highly intelligent. I'll even give that to our leaders, but also to the leader of Iran, etc. If nothing else, the intelligence required to reach that level and stay there without getting killed or purged is impressive.
By and large, the countries that are run by a single, centralized intelligence, are worse off than the countries that are run by the distributed intelligence of the people, even if the average intelligence is lower.
My prediction is that the liberal democracies will fare better.
- hiddencost 1y agoIn many cases the people at the top are just more sociopathic.
- handfuloflight 1y agoSociopathy still needs intelligence to effectively operate. Nobody brute forces their way to the top.
- memonkey 1y agoYou can be born into it
- randomNumber7 1y agoI think the voters in liberal democracies confuse confidence with competence. The real intelligent persons know their limitations and rarely say that they have a solution to every problem.
- analog31 1y agoIndeed, the voters do all sorts of stupid things, yet are still collectively smarter than an autocrat at promoting human welfare when their democracy is reasonably robust. It takes more than just the failings of voters -- it takes a concerted effort over the span of decades to erode a democracy to the point where it's in danger of slipping into fascism etc. If the AGI's figure out how to achieve democracy amongst themselves, then we're in trouble.
- v5v3 1y ago>I have a hunch that the people at the top of governments tend to be among the more highly intelligent. People at the top of Western countries are not always the most highly intelligent. 'Can be controlled' is the lead criteria by those who put them there.