popular culture is full of stories of genius scientists, engineers, politicians, military leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, etc
I think it’s possible that there are all sorts of reasons why these people could have vanished from public view. For example, maybe most of society’s smartest people have all become socially-awkward corporate executives who already raced to the bottom and currently spend all of their brainpower outmaneuvering each other at office politics, or pumping out dozens of unique galaxy-brained resumes per day. Or maybe most of them have become software engineers who are smart enough to make $200k/y working from home one hour a day while appearing to work eight hours, and spend the rest of their time and energy hooked on major social media platforms (I’ve encountered several people in the Bay Area who do this).
It’s difficult to theorize about invisible geniuses (or the absence of invisible geniuses) because it’s unfalsifiable. But it’s definitely possible that they could either secretly be in a glamorous place, like an underground network steering and coordinating multiple intelligence agencies (in which case all potential opposition might be doomed by default), or an unglamorous place, like socially awkward corporate executives struggling at office politics (office politics aren’t a good fit for them due to social awkwardness), but they keep at it because they’re still too smart to fail at the office politics and were never given a fair chance to find out about superintelligence or human intelligence amplification.
… or an unglamorous place, like socially awkward corporate executives struggling at office politics (office politics aren’t a good fit for them due to social awkwardness), but they keep at it because they’re still too smart to fail at the office politics …
That is a very interesting point. I never even considered before the possibility of someone just smart enough to keep afloat in office politics but not smart enough to transcend it. But when spelled out like that, it seems obvious that there must be a sizable cohort of middle managers and executives that fall into this category.
It does seem doubly tragic if they didn’t even want to do it in the first place or have unsuitable personalities that effectively acts as a glass ceiling, regardless of how much effort they put in.
I think it’s possible that there are all sorts of reasons why these people could have vanished from public view. For example, maybe most of society’s smartest people have all become socially-awkward corporate executives who already raced to the bottom and currently spend all of their brainpower outmaneuvering each other at office politics, or pumping out dozens of unique galaxy-brained resumes per day. Or maybe most of them have become software engineers who are smart enough to make $200k/y working from home one hour a day while appearing to work eight hours, and spend the rest of their time and energy hooked on major social media platforms (I’ve encountered several people in the Bay Area who do this).
It’s difficult to theorize about invisible geniuses (or the absence of invisible geniuses) because it’s unfalsifiable. But it’s definitely possible that they could either secretly be in a glamorous place, like an underground network steering and coordinating multiple intelligence agencies (in which case all potential opposition might be doomed by default), or an unglamorous place, like socially awkward corporate executives struggling at office politics (office politics aren’t a good fit for them due to social awkwardness), but they keep at it because they’re still too smart to fail at the office politics and were never given a fair chance to find out about superintelligence or human intelligence amplification.
That is a very interesting point. I never even considered before the possibility of someone just smart enough to keep afloat in office politics but not smart enough to transcend it. But when spelled out like that, it seems obvious that there must be a sizable cohort of middle managers and executives that fall into this category.
It does seem doubly tragic if they didn’t even want to do it in the first place or have unsuitable personalities that effectively acts as a glass ceiling, regardless of how much effort they put in.