natural stupidity in the age of a.i.

we had grown quite accustomed to smartphones controlling our lives when, in the opening and shutting of our laptops, yet another form of intelligence arrived, mesmerizing us, but also, reminding us of what is arguably one of our greatest fears as sapiens: being outsmarted intellectually.

artificial intelligence (a.i.), is essentially a gigantic collection of masterfully programmed data, capable of processing and reasoning through said amounts of information at speeds that no human brain, or even a hundred combined, could ever achieve. and along with a.i., there’s chatgtp, image, audio, and video generators, and in this astonishing wave of easily accessible «new wisdom», the metaverse and smart glasses have been left behind. the general belief is that google search will be next, and along the way…so will we.

and with all this comes the reactions, the articles, the disagreements, the controversies, the conspiracy theories, the predictions, the news, and within the news, “factual” news, fake news, sensationalist news; then there’s tweets, and among the tweets, the informative ones and the stupid ones. and the memes, which are all stupid. and here, i pause… for in the beauty of memes and the greatness of tweets lies the phenomenon that is the nature of human stupidity, a naturally possessed talent that no other species or talent that no other species or super-intelligent machine will be capable of possessing, enjoying, replicating, or improving upon. never. that capacity was bestowed upon us so that–and this is just an example–we could laugh at ourselves and our tragedies, in real time. moments we, sapiens, could never process at the speed of light, but which we could certainly turn into an instant joke, make it viral in seconds, improve upon it, share it again, and move forward, imperfect and unbeatable; stoic and stupid; fools and gods of ourselves.

natural stupidity, (n.s.), has been and will always be our most advanced technology, our secret weapon. it’s the ace up our sleeve that has led us to discover a world that, in a more intellectual, analytical, or rational form, we would have never unearthed: medical and technological advancements, scientific discoveries, tasty dishes, music, continents, planets, the simpsons, and everything else that has been the by product of «why not» or «fuck, i did it wrong, but look how good it turned out, how good it sounds, how good it tastes, how well it works.»

because only the naturally stupid possess that exceptional stupidity that leads them to improvise, reinvent, and give a chance for the magic to exist. moreover, they have been endowed with enough courage to do what no «reasonable» person would dare, to go against what is stipulated. they are not afraid to go against everyone else, but going against themselves… well, that’s terrifying. and making mistakes, they don’t fear those either, because they know that the only mistake one could make…is to remain silent.

let’s remember those who decided to test whether parachutes worked. let’s remember the wright brothers. what a pair of idiots. or more recently, the pair of volcanologists who camped inside the most active craters on the planet. one day, one of the two got on an inflatable boat and rode across a lake of sulfuric acid. they died together in japan during the eruption of mount unzen. thanks to them and their infinite stupidity, we now understand more about volcanoes.

in conclusion, let us embrace our stupidity today more than ever. so that on the day when androids decide to take over with their perfected artificial intelligence, or when aliens come to conquer us all with their millions of years of superior evolution, we will survive not because of our analytical prowess or intelligence, but because of our spontaneity and natural stupidity. because i’m sure that when we’re on the verge of losing, one of us will come up with something so incredibly stupid, like sticking gum on the engine of an alien spaceship or will dress up as an android and begin to tap dance, confusing the enemy, surprising them with the least intellectual of attacks. and then, not only will we win the most epic battle of all time, but we’ll do it laughing our asses off.