The Law of Intellectual Entropy

The Law states: "Intelligence is a measure of the ease with which one solves problems. As problems increase in complexity, so too must intelligence increase. If the complexity of a problem exceeds the ability of intelligence to solve it, then intelligence ceases to have relevance. When intelligence is used to create problems that defy resolution it renders itself superfluous."

As problems increase in complexity there are fewer people having sufficient intelligence to even comprehend much less resolve them, making the vast majority of moderately intelligent people seem less and less capable. It has the effect of disenfranchising those of less intelligence from the process of problem resolution and creates an intellectual elite.

This elite has fewer members as the level of complexity of the problems encountered increases. The ultimate consequence of this evolution of lost capacity is that the total intelligence of the entire species decreases. The clearest evidence is the operation of this Law is that those having the most intelligence persist in creating insoluble problems. Surely a stupid thing to do.

This collective loss of intelligence in not merely apparent, its affects are real and quantifiable (see this). The fact that the most intelligent people continue to create insoluble problems is the clearest evidence of the applicability of this Law. The obvious fact that intelligent people rarely agree about even the most basic questions is yet more evidence. The fact that people can't even agree on what constitutes a fact is still more evidence. The details of the innumerable controversies in which we regularly entangle ourselves are not important, it's the context that reveals the operation of the Law of Intellectual Entropy.

Entropy is the irrecoverable loss of energy, degeneration, the inevitable "progress" toward inertia. As living becomes more difficult and more complicated and decisions have greater effect on more people, more intelligence is required to merely survive.

Those lacking at least that minimum quanta of intelligence will become more dependent on those more capable. This requires that the level of trust likewise increase since the followers lack the means (intelligence) to determine if the solutions offered by their leaders are proper or even workable. There is nothing in history justifying this trust yet it is essential; we trust because we don't know what else to do. Surely an eloquent proof of the Law (see this).

To see where you fit on the scale of the Survival Intelligence Minimum Scale, Click Here