Downward Selection

Downward Selection is Real - Darwinian Evolution is Incomplete

There are several mechanisms in society that promote a general downward selection for traits in humans - ie, things that make us dumber, less healthy, and less sublime.

Some notable examples are:

1. Selective genocide - killing off selected individuals based on their ability. Specifically ranked by ability -leadership and intelligentsia of grpups or countries. Such as the Katyn Massacre and numerous other examples of Selective Genocides. Overall effect on the society at hand should be studied in depth.
2. Nonselective Genocide - typically because they were just there. Such as genocide of native americans, where in the 21st century, a clear and visible destruction of an entire culture can be seen in its remaining knees.
3. Standard American diet - has been documented to cause significant health issues in a significant fraction of the population, at epidemic proportions.
4. Second Best - the structural nature of the education system limits the growth potential of every single individual, in aprofundar way. This is perhaps the most insidious aspect of modern society - because we do not in general recognize this.
5. Oppressive political regimes and free press violations - such as north korea or china, or wikileaks case - which prevent dissidents from communicating relevant information.
6. Internet - while empowering many, the internet perhaps hurts more than it helps, as misinformation, pseudoscience, conspiracy theorists, extremists were provided new platforms to produce an unprecedented psychological health crisis which was compunded by COVID.
7. Bad education - education institutions foculus on slotting people into jobs, not innovating themselves towards unjobbed lifestyles. This is a significant cultural defect. Parents worry about their kids having a respectable job - rather than growing as Integrated Humans. Bad education - one responsible for most people reaching only a small fraction of their potential - has profound downward selective aspects that are a threat to democracy and prosperity. The power of education lies in people having an amazing capacity to be programmed. But they can be programmed completely with malware - or they can be programmed for correct mental models, critical thinking, creativity, rapid learning abilities - and most importantly - open, collaborative, growth mindsets. Edison said, 'If we would really do what we are capable of doing, we would astound ourselves'
8. Political Ponerology - society selects for deranged qualities in people of power. This needs to be expanded upon here.

Effects

• The "mob rule" aspect of democracy has been aggravated by the increased ease of manipulating larger numbers of people through the internet. This is just a general observation. The issue of mob rule originated in Greece and has never been solved. Mob rule refers to majority rule - and the majority in today's world is downward-selected. Ie, the 'vulgar masses' have significant political power wherever a country ranks low on a democratic scale. Such as, drug lords, corrupt politicians, demagogues, or kleptocrats ruling entire countries - as opposed to leaders being selected for their ethical qualities. This is a primitive state of affairs, but it reflects that either elections are manipulated, or people elect the pathological agents to power, willfully. The latter happens as a result of the above downward selection processes. The only solution is bringing everyone up - beyond classism and race to full empowerment with true education and Authentic Learning. An educated mob makes for good democracy.

Solutions- Collaborative Creation of Genius - or Mass Creation of Genius

The real questions are - how to we promote mass creation of genius to counteract the above? This gets into these operational points and points of principle:

• Rapid Learning Instructional.
• Authentic Sharing of Cutting Edge Information.
• Open Source Genius Network‎.
• Second Best.
• Integrated Learning‎‎.
• Transformation.
• Continuing Distillation‎.
• Rapid Learning Infrastructure for XM Workshop‎.
• Supercooperator Fab Lab‎.
• 5 Day Workshop Infrastructure‎.
• OSE Collaborative Marketing.
• Ethical Agents.
• Authentic Cutting Edge Info‎‎.
• Let Me Drop Some OS Economic Theory Webinar.

Links

• Who are thought leaders on mass creation of genius? Genius Network is a great resource of podcasts - it needs the transformation aspect of upgrading existing institutions.
• Darwin is Incomplete