Stupidity

-What is stupidity?

Today we looked at what stupidity is, and why it is so difficult to define. A question that was raised was "How can we understand stupidity if we don't understand knowledge?", which is essentially is what TOK explores.

" Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former" -Albert Einstein


A definition of stupid in the Oxford English Dictionary is as follows:
adj.
1) Lacking intelligence or common sense
2) Dazed and unable to think clearly
3) (informal) used to express exasperation or boredom

In the documentary we watched in class, these 'types' of definitions were what the people interviewed came up with. It seems to be the inability to think appropriately in an intellectual, social, or any sort of situation.In this sense, the expression of 'exasperation or boredom' fits as being bored takes our ability to think properly.

However, everyday we use the word 'stupid' in a much broader sense. Anything we don't approve of is 'stupid'. Where does this ambiguous word which all people use come from?
The documentary showed how humans have had a uncomfortable history with ignorance, and have avoided to confront the issue in a proper academic form. The IQ, which measures intelligence in a scientific manner, on the other hand of the scale also defines stupidity. The IQ test originally served to classify retardation in children, although now we tend to avoid the direct classification of people with low IQ as 'retarded'. Different words that compare levels of stupidity in people were clarified then.

There is also a tendency for people to opt for stupidity. Watching television is a almost brainless activity, which causes a state of virtual catatonia. We know this, yet at the end of the day when we are tired, we often want to watch television brainlessly. The whole commercial industry and the media is based around this concept of brainless activity. Yet it is 'commercial' because it reaches to wide audiences and makes money. So can stupidity be a type of social phenomena/disease? I think the fact that people are living in intellectual society which promotes knowledge means that on the other hand, intelligence is also used to create stupidity. Because there is intelligence, stupidity is created. It is like saying someone can only become healthy because unhealthiness exists, and if unhealthiness didn't exist, then there would be no pursuit for better health.

So what is stupidity? I don't know :)

Mathematics (cont.)

The Problem of Consistency; Beauty and Elegance; Mathematics in the Universe

Although Math seems like the most provable, definite area of knowledge, it has its flaws and paradoxes. 

One example given in the lecture was Gottlob Frege's work, which involved trying to reduce all theories into simple arithmetic. Lord Russell challenged Frege's work at a fundamental level, concerning the 'set paradox'. This paradox was about a set containing all sets that are not members of themselves.

What happens with the set of the "sets that do not contain themselves as elements"? Now it seems that there are knot theories (diagram below) which can get around the set paradox.

With the problem showed in the lecture of whether N=0.999... is equal to 1, the 'paradox' created here depends upon our definition of infinity (quoted from my mom :) ). We can prove N to be 1 with simple algebra:

N = 0.99999

10N = 9.9999

Therefore 

10N-N = 9.9999 - 0.9999

9N = 9

N = 1

The simplicity in this logic is satisfying. However if we were to really look into whether 0.999 does equal 1, we would look at if we define 0.9999 approaching 1 to be 1, thus how we define the infinite number of nines. When talking about beauty and elegance in math, I feel this type of discussion is what attracts people to pure maths. 

Maths does have flaws, but mathematicians work on its flaws to correct them and explain how things work. In fact without its paradoxes and flaws, I'm not sure if there would be that many mathematicians in the world, because everything would work in perfect simple logic. 

Then there is the question, is maths just a coincidence that math is so prevalent in reality? Was maths invented by people or was it discovered? Maths is a pure science, that is systematic and logical, as well as an art to create fundamental logic. It definitely to some point has been defined by people, as we can see in ancient civilizations where maths that began in different areas of the world came about differently. 

I think it makes sense that maths works, because the universe was not created by pure randomness. When things happen there is normally a cause and effect, and if the universe was created by a chain of cause and effects, then it seems reasonable that things fell into place in a somewhat structured way. The coincidence of the Golden Ratio may not be explainable by human minds (at least currently). But the brain is a biological object which has cells, structure, science to it, and it seems logical that we react to certain ratios naturally.