Stupid voters have always been a thing in politics. That's why representatives are elected; they're supposed to be more educated and actually capable of making important decisions.
Unfortunately, the election of these representatives is very much a popularity contest, with each of the major news networks rooting for their own candidate and trying to indoctrinate as many people as possible to love their candidate and hate the opposition.
I can't see an IQ test ever being implemented. Absolutely no politician alive would want to be associated with such a measure, and the uneducated of the country would riot in fear of their rights being taken away from them.
It sounds kinda crazy, but I always thought an excellent solution would be to have a computer make political decisions. Many aspects of politics are essentially large number problems that go ignored by politicians in favor of qualitative information. We're really at the dawn of the computer age right now, and there's no reason to believe there isn't going to be a computer capable of making political decisions in the future.
I can't imagine it ever taking off on Earth though; such a system would likely start as being the decision maker of some independent colony on another planet, of which it would become the standard political system for other worlds.
Despite our obvious failings, we humans are much better at making these kind of decisions than machines will be (but that gap might close; not in the any foreseeable future though).
Besides, I think the whole idea of an IQ test is ridiculous. The test itself is unreliable, and even if its not, a person with low IQ might still make a good politician. The fact that (s)he gets elected itself shows you a certain amount of inventiveness, even if its through voter fraud.
Which makes me believe that finally, protests will always have to be a part of any free society. There will always be times when the political class becomes so stupid/deattached from reality that the intelligentsia need to show them that they will not cooperate. Its unfortunate, but that does seem to be the case for now
Unfortunately, the election of these representatives is very much a popularity contest, with each of the major news networks rooting for their own candidate and trying to indoctrinate as many people as possible to love their candidate and hate the opposition.
I can't see an IQ test ever being implemented. Absolutely no politician alive would want to be associated with such a measure, and the uneducated of the country would riot in fear of their rights being taken away from them.
It sounds kinda crazy, but I always thought an excellent solution would be to have a computer make political decisions. Many aspects of politics are essentially large number problems that go ignored by politicians in favor of qualitative information. We're really at the dawn of the computer age right now, and there's no reason to believe there isn't going to be a computer capable of making political decisions in the future. I can't imagine it ever taking off on Earth though; such a system would likely start as being the decision maker of some independent colony on another planet, of which it would become the standard political system for other worlds.