It's fun to see a meme meet its logical conclusion…
Always high on my priority reading list are articles by Peter Limberg. Midwittery to Humility was fun to read. And I had fun prompting Microsoft Bing Image Creator from Desinger to make a meme for this article. After four iterations, this was the best it did but at least it made me laugh.
For those unaware, the midwit meme, as depicted by the IQ bell curve, signifies the horseshoe theory at play with a myriad of opinions.
It seems to me that discussion of the IQ bell curve is still mostly taboo, yet it feels important to me. To the best of my knowledge, I am in the 34% ranging from 100 to 115 and I describe myself as average and ordinary. And I am very interested in learning from the galaxy brains in the SPACE who have higher IQs but also have humility and no need to signal their intelligence.
The truth is, in terms of borrowed opinions, we all are midwits. It takes a lifetime of philosophizing to examine all aspects of one's worldview, and borrowed opinions can have practical utility.
My less playful reframing of us all being midwits is that we are all constructs. We are complex systems processing the opinions of others and constructing our current selves. I build my worldview on borrowed opinions and I borrow a lot from Peter Limberg.
There are a few strategies to cultivate intellectual humility; one way is to have a clearer sense of what intelligence actually is.
I suspect that intelligence is a hyperobject and that none of us have a full grasp of what it actually is.
The intellectually arrogant overvalue the importance of the intelligence they possess, and the intellectually diffident overvalue the importance of the intelligence others possess.
Sam Harris changed the trajectory of my life in 2015 with his book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. But I have paid little attention to him since. For me, he personifies being intellectually arrogant.
Peter’s article gives me a springboard for sharing another idea deep inside of me. I spend a lot of time learning from galaxy brains. But I think there is something missing in the SPACE that I long for. I believe that the collective wisdom of average and ordinary people is equally important. I once triggered someone when I suggested that 100 average and ordinary people could equal a galaxy brain. Extending this idea, 1000 average and ordinary could perhaps be more valuable than 1 galaxy brain. So I am looking for platforms that aggregate the wisdom of us in the middle. AI gives me hope.