The Real Great Replacement Theory

 I Have A Couple of Friends Who Think Morons Are Replacing Us

That is the real replacement theory - the idiots are replicating, and they are voting, and they are electing their own. If I did not resemble a moron myself, I would agree with them.

They might find encouragement from Michael McGirr's review of Simon Winchester's Knowing What We Know: The Transmission Of Knowledge From Ancient Wisdom To Modern Magic, Are we heading for the end of our intelligence? in The Brisbane Times.

Beneath all this he has a powerful question, more so because, while he has strong suspicions, he is not completely sure of the answer. He wonders if knowledge is becoming a thing of the past. His concern is based on the observation that nobody needs to know anything any more. If you visit a doctor, they are likely to check your symptoms on their computer. The same applies to any kind of professional.

So, what happens to us as a species if all our knowing is outsourced to machines. Is it possible to be wise, without personal knowledge. Winchester doubts it. But it is possible to be foolish or even nasty.

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“There will very soon be no particular need to be intelligent at all,” writes Winchester. “No need to be thoughtful. No need to think. Machines will do it for us. Or, to state once again the most nagging concern, machines may before long do it for themselves.”

Most of us will have wondered about these issues. Winchester does a fine job of helping us realise what we stand to lose.

How will you make a call when you lose your cellphone, which has usurped your memory of your dearest's number?

However, The Times Literary Supplement might supply the evidence that human stupidity has a long pedigree in Anna Aslanyan's `The Where the morons are: A comical translation from the Russian by Anthony Burgess.

But 18th Century Russians didn't have Twitter and Facebook, did they?

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