I saw this linked to Drudge and I had to laugh. In another post I mentioned the nuisance fraction. That’s the portion of humanity, who mostly interfere with the orderly operation of society. They are not criminals. They are merely dimwitted, reckless, careless, inconsiderate and so forth. The ghetto has a high number of these people. Go to a fast food joint near the ghetto and you find vibrant people in line not ordering off the menu. They also require a separate bag for each item and one of every free item available. You know you will be in line for a while when you see a few of these people in line.

Anyway, there’s a lot of overlap with this group, the perpetually yapping on the phone set. I’m fond of saying that 99% of cellular communications is between two competing dimwits with nothing of value to impart to the other. They just jibber-jabber at one another like simpletons all day, every day. The other morning I almost drove over a woman who was yammering on her cell. It was 8:00 AM and I was heading to the office. She was headed toward the office building, phone in her ear, and walked into traffic. What could she possibly have to say that could not wait?

The answer is nothing.

Schutta says parents spend, on average, 11 hours a day using electronic devices. All that time takes away from face to face communication, which helps kids learn behavior.

“Kids in preschool and kindergarten are no longer as able to read social cues from other human beings,” Schutta said. “That’s in part because of their own media use and it’s in part because of their parents’ media use, they’re just not getting that training.”

Too much time on technology can also leave an emotional impact on your child, if you’re missing life moments for email.

The fat woman I almost hit was willing to leave an impact on my truck just to yap about nonsense to another blockhead. Putting aside the walking into traffic stuff, that women is most likely paying $100 a month for the phone. That’s $1200 a year after taxes. Judging by her dress, that’s two weeks wages per year going to the phone company so she can gossip to and from her remunerated activity.

For most of human history, making it to adulthood was a big deal. Even into relatively docile times like the middle ages, women lost a third of their off-spring by adulthood. Into the industrial age, losing a kid or two was not unusual. therefore, the least physically fit rarely made it long enough to breed. Even then, not having some value to society was a good way to remain a bachelor. In other words, for men at least, you had to have some status in order to pass on your DNA to the next generation.

Today, the stupid fat woman wandering into the street is saved by those of us who know better. Even if she was hit, a smart team of doctors would probably patch her up. A smart lawyer would get her a big settlement from the insurance company. In a world in which labor is less necessary, increasing the supply of epsilons will have negative consequences. On the other hand, giving the state the power to murder those they deem useless is never a good idea so I don’t think there’s much to be done about it.

Regardless, we may have found a way to short-circuit a vital natural process. Spend any time on Diversity Street and you see the challenge straight away. It’s not that the stupid are breeding. It’s that a basket full of traits antithetical to human progress are celebrated in a way that turns natural selection on its head. If you are a woman adept at turning generosity into a vice by scamming the welfare system, you can have ten kids and live well. If you are a male with high violence capital and a complete lack of social intelligence, you rise in status and therefore breed like a rabbit.

If you want a glimpse of the future, head on down to Diversity Street and imagine the folks you see wandering around your town, wearing Google Glass or whatever wearable devise emerges in the next decade. That’s the future. Millions of jabbering nitwits doing nothing more than planning their next crime or their next opportunity to breed new nitwits.