What is your view of dysgenics?

Question

I recently watched a movie called Idiocracy which took place in the year 2506. Everyone was stupid because evolution had favored those who bred the most. The movie implied that those who bred the most tended to be less intelligent. As a result, society gradually dumbed down. Do you see this happening now, and if so, what do you think that the effects will be in the future?

Answer 1

I think that that you don't have to worry too much about that.
Two smart people can give birth to a child that wasn't such a genius. And it has happened that two not so smart people
had achild that turned out to develop an extraordinary intellect.
Einsteins parents were ordinary people. In your DNA there's aconstant fight for dominance among genes. Superior genes tend to win. I believe that our DNA is very much alive and active. The conditions in which each individual gets to develop has a lot to do with that intellectual progress.
On the large scale we in fact differ very little from each other
genetically speaking. Some of what you're saying could be true to some extent, but in the overall perspective things have a way of balancing themselves out.

Answer 2

I don't see this happening now. It is not necessarily the unintelligent that breed a lot but the impoverished. More babies means more chances that at least one will survive. As modern medicine reaches under developed countries, the birth rate slows after several years of very high survival rates (see Mexico population data). Also, humans breed so slowly that you would not see any drastic changes even after 500 years. Do you think we are any smarter or dumber than ancient societies like the Egyptians, Romans, or Greeks? Some of them lived over 2000 years ago, but I don't think we've changed that much :)

Answer 3

I would doubt this. We would still mate assortively and the beautiful, especially females, would find intelligent mates; regardless of their intelligence.