Sorry if you're offended.  My comments aren't directed at you, as I
already said.  I have no problems with any of your posts (and actually,
I can't recall any of them off-hand).  I do have problems with other
people's posts, who seem to be following a radical version of the ideas
you are expressing.

...

It is a pity that the citizens of the world fail to elect
governments that are willing to pay more than lip service
to the tenets of the U.D.o.H.R.  To wit
<http://www.physci.org/humanrt/humanrt.htm#26>.

I think of my mother who had a very selective intelligence.  There
were machines she liked, e.g. sewing machines, whose intricacies never
phased her, and other much simpler ones like the retracting roof on
her convertible, or a digital alarm clock, that would throw her for a
loop.  I put it down to playing helpless to get others to do work.

The first order of business in dealing with a "stupid" person is to
get them to give up the advantages of being incompetent, to persuade
them they really would be better off competent.

The second order of business is persuading them it is possible to make
a dramatic leap in competence if they invest the effort. I often do it
by telling stories of other people I have helped. Confidence in me
becomes a Dumbo magic flying feather to give them confidence in
themselves.

The third order of business is to give them permission to fail. This
why teaching kids is so easy in comparison to adults. They have
absolutely no fear of making mistakes. Adults are often terrified to
try anything least they make a fool of themselves. In face to face
teaching, I sometimes use a technique where it is impossible not to
fail on the first try.  I make students guess things they have little
chance of knowing.  I use this to crack the fear of experimenting to
discover knowledge.  

The technique blew up in my face once working with a group of women
reentering the work force. They considered this so cruel they reported
me to the government bureaucracy who was funding the training. I had
asked one to hit "any key" picked an random to demonstrate that
computers would not explode as they do on Star Trek if you hit the
wrong key.  She went tharn like a deer in the headlights. She refused
on grounds I would not tell her "which" key to hit. Then she burst
into tears. I was asking her to make an impossible decision, according
to the complaint.

You can see a similar fear reflected in many of the questions posted
here. What would happen if I...  What are they so afraid of that
stopped them from just doing it to find out?

A think a lot of this fear and inhibition comes from impatient parents
who squash child curiosity in a desire to have some belongings left
intact or from parents who are overly afraid their child will injure
themselves.

My own parents were the exact opposite. Today, they would probably get
in trouble for letting me play with power tools, gas mowers, soldering
irons, electrical components etc long before I went to primary school.