Lead: "People must feel allowed to be stupid"

The article features an interview with Herr Scheidegger discussing the relationship between knowledge and decision-making in society. He notes that despite having more knowledge than ever before, people seem to be making poorer decisions, citing the rise of right-wing populism and the rejection of scientific evidence. Scheidegger attributes this to a growing "egocentrism" in thinking, where individuals prioritize their own perspectives and values over facts and established knowledge.

He introduces the concept of "Überdummheit" (over-intelligence or pseudo-intelligence), where people strategically reject established knowledge to assert their own views, often as a form of provocation or pose. Scheidegger argues that this phenomenon is linked to the rise of artificial intelligence, which he sees as the pinnacle of "over-intelligence," and suggests that true intelligence involves being open to uncertainty and able to learn from mistakes.