I wonder whether Ray Kurzweil is beginning to worry about his predicted singularity, arriving a mere 34 years from now, at which point humans and their faithful machines decide to share the same intelligence and make the world safe for even more boring and predictable game shows as well as free and fair elections.
I just read that nearly a third of all Russians agree that the sun revolves around the earth, slightly fewer are convinced that men and their faithful squeezes were setting up housekeeping when sauropods ruled the planet, and more than half of this vodka-based voting bloc believes that man created radioactivity.
These findings bother me because I always thought that Russians nowhere near as intelligent as Americans, who — to be fair — can barely give slime-mold a run for the money on a reality show. How else to explain the NOMF™ penchant for voting in a rigged system that demands they suck on the engorged meat-puppets of corporate wealth and say thanks by first opening their ill-informed mouths to imbibe the protein shake they eventually take out loans to pay for before swallowing and posting the whole entertaining pledge of allegiance on YouTube?
So it turns out that the average Russian believes in half as much complete bullshit as Sarah Palin, a third as much as John Boehner, almost as much as Mitch McConnell, and less than 10% of anyone affiliated with Fox News, which means they are pretty much ready-made neo-condi rice and beaners, middle-tier tea-baggers, and the foundation upon which the modern Republican party is built: several hundred thousand worn bags of hammers.
While Russian researchers who conducted the study found the stupidity of the citizenry "really quite amazing," noting that the questions "were absolutely obvious...the data speaks of the low levels of education in the country," I'm convinced that many of my fellow citizens are standing around with their hands in their exercise fleece as they read this, scratching their heads, and wondering what's the big deal. They think everyone knew that sun thingie. It's in The Bible.
By the way, the study found that Russian women believed more bullshit than men and were more outspoken about their faith in their unerring ability to refute science by sheer force of will and an unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ.
I'm sure Michelle Bachman is wet and quivering at the implications.