What Exactly IS Intelligence? (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Monday, August 30, 2010, 12:06 (5198 days ago) @ romansh

ROMANSH: As I said in my opening, intelligence is deeply entwined with life, consciousness, free will [...] can we have intelligence without free will by your definition?-As I said in my response, I don't know if ... or at least to what extent ... we have free will. Pinker (The Blank Slate, not State ... it's Matt's tabula rasa) says about 40% to 50% of our behavioural traits might be ascribed to genetics. I don't know how he gets to that figure. Nor do I know what percentage is caused by other factors beyond our control, such as disease, our environment, our upbringing. All I can say is that I feel that I have free will, and I act accordingly. If science proved, however, that 100% of my behaviour is dictated by conditions beyond my control, I'd have to say I don't have free will. But yes, I would still have intelligence in accordance with my definition, because I would still have the conscious ability to perceive, understand, think, apply my knowledge etc., i.e. I'm still thinking and am aware that I'm thinking, even if I may not be aware of the various factors that are influencing my thinking.-ROMANSH: I'm sorry dhw, giving a definition alone does not get you any prizes. But by your definition at which point in a person's development does that person metamorphose from non-intelligent to intelligent? I accept that there are shades of grey here, but do you hold at some point in development that a person is not intelligent? -I am devastated at not getting the prize! I shall report you to the International Philosophical Awards Committee for changing the rules halfway through the game. The question asked is: What exactly IS intelligence? The answer has to be a definition. You are now asking an entirely different question: at what point does a person qualify as being intelligent? You more or less accepted my definition of consciousness as a state in which one is awake, aware of oneself, and aware of what is going on around oneself. You didn't challenge it by asking at what point does a baby become aware of itself: two seconds after birth, two months, two years, first cry, first laugh, first word? We don't know. Similarly, you can't pin intelligence down to a specific point at which "no" turns into "yes". But that doesn't invalidate the definition. I want my prize!