Where does intelligence come from?

[Biochemist]

Can we show that anything is random? The closest concept of random occurs at the quantum level, and even that is an arguable issue.

It seems to me that the liklihood of our federal congress passing any law of actual value is random. :xx:

[sanctus]

i agree with you, but do you think this gift we possess (awareness), is what intelligence is? some people do i think.. i personally believe that there's an element of intelligence, but that creatures that may not be as contemplative or aware as we are, may be intelligent.

 

but you raise an interesting thought that perhaps deserves its own thread. if you were to create one i would discuss it further with you.. (or here works too, i guess)

Doesn't awareness presuppose intelligence? How can you be aware of what is going on around you without intelligence?

[lindagarrette]

Doesn't awareness presuppose intelligence? How can you be aware of what is going on around you without intelligence?

If awarenes means reacting to your environment, then unless you consider all life forms intelligent, I would say the answer is no intelligence (central nervous system) is required..

[Fishteacher73]

I think intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes and alter ones future actions. Most animate things therefore exhibit some degree of intelligence. This cvan be something as simple as Pavlovian responses to using others' experience to add to your own.

(This does fit in to a deterministic view, so don't come complaining to me about be altering my POV in various posts... :) ).

[Queso]

I think intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes and alter ones future actions

i sure do know a lot of people who aren't intelligent then...

[Fishteacher73]

Note I said ability....

[Queso]

yeah yeah, sarcastic remark. :)

[mandyface/]

I totally agree with you, I was jusy having a debate with a friend about this and he thinks the only ways to learn are by experience, reading and what people tell you . I don't think reading really qualifies as a way to learn because books are based on opinions. Opinions are biased. I don't think reading creates intelligence but it creates knowledge. What do you think ?

[UV-gap]

I ..our intelligence is so much greater than other thinking creatures? ...?

 

 

You sound like a 15 year old idiot-savant that has learned so much that you forget that without knowledge there can be no ignorance. And thus intelligence is just the ignoring of ignorance. And this ignoring of ignorance is the formula for the Supreme Comedy called the mind, life.

 

The joke is that Intelligence cannot know anything about Reality. And intelligence also cannot know that intelligence is just a word, thought, the mind and its life.

 

Life is the Supreme Comedy because there is no such thing as thinking. This is because thinking is just a thought.

 

The Supreme Comedy is that there is absolutely no difference between sleep-dreams and "life." This is because the mind is always dreaming that it is awake.

And all of mankind's certainties are based on the mother and father of all certainties that the mind has/is when it thinks it is awake in its sleep-dreams.

 

And so the Supreme Comedy is that IQ is just a measure of the speed and scope of the wild-goose-chase we call life, in which thoughts recruit thoughts to chase thoughts to keep the universe expanding just as fast as the thoughts that feed it to create it, the universe, until the Laughter ends the race, chase.

[lindagarrette]

I think intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes and alter ones future actions. Most animate things therefore exhibit some degree of intelligence. This cvan be something as simple as Pavlovian responses to using others' experience to add to your own.

(This does fit in to a deterministic view, so don't come complaining to me about be altering my POV in various posts... :lol: ).

Fishteach... You are correct at least according to the research I've read. Intelligence is the ability to learn for the purpose of adaptation to an environment. It is completely deterministic, as is every other aspect of behavior.

 

Intelligence manifests itself in many ways. Look at how flocks of birds, cephalopods, sea mammals, even insect colonies, and our pets -- pigs, cats, dogs, horses, modify their behavior not only for survival, but to enjoy their existance so they can reproduce.

[infamous]

Fishteach... You are correct at least according to the research I've read. Intelligence is the ability to learn for the purpose of adaptation to an environment. It is completely deterministic, as is every other aspect of behavior.

 

Because intelligence is the demonstrated ability to aquire information from outside ourselves and assemble it into a useful advantage or understanding, I also agree, in part, with both Linda and Fish. Information is provided by the environment, intelligence is the talent displayed in it's organization..................Infy

[questor]

Infy, good definition. what about thought that occurs with no input from outside? say you are watching TV and start thinking about a former girlfriend, or a football game? somewhere in the neural wiring of our brains we have the capacity to store recallable data as well as address the needs of now. our thoughts can freely flow without observable stimulous and contemplate the what ifs of life. this is how inventions and mathematics are conceived. would an Australian aborigine be capable of this?

[Rincewind]

would an Australian aborigine be capable of this?

Yes.

[infamous]

this is how inventions and mathematics are conceived. would an Australian aborigine be capable of this?

Sadly, I fear that we are generating offspring right here in the good old U.S.of A. that are ill- equipped to perform this task.......................Infy

[clapstyx]

This will be a bit contentious perhaps but I think you can "fake" intelligence simply by understanding as many forms of logic as possible you can develop an ability to reason along multiple lines distilling out a greater understanding.

 

This was something that some indiginous cultures did. Understand the logic of the other species around you and tap into their logic. I dont know about all cases but that was the origin of the "totem concept" for many of them.

[Mercy]

I believe, respectively, that our intellect did not come from evolving our mind. Something cannot come from nothing. Think of a timeline of our universe, from the big bang(which I don't belive in) until present day. The big bang began with just matter and energy, and somewhere along the line, somehow life, intellect, morality, and beauty came along so that they are here in present time. Really? No, nonsense. Something cannot come from nothing. You might laugh, but everything in the universe points toward a God. Think again of this timeline of the universe. It is isolated, though there are many different variables, they are all isolated together in this bubble we call a universe. If at the beginning it was just matter and energy, all there would be billions of years later(like today), would be different forms of that matter and energy. Morality, intellect, and conscience are not forms of either, and regarding life, neither is it! For life takes energy to sustain, like a machine, and also like a machine, it can create energy. But unlike energy, left to itself it will quickly degrade, burn out. Life was created to run on something(God), but after the fall of mankind it was forced to run off energy, which it quickly burns through. But about intellect, it came from a creator. The whole universe is intelligently desinged, everything is either far too complex or far too simple to have came about by natural selection and such. ''Creation'' needs a ''creator''. If your phone was desinged by an intellent person, how much more is the intelligent being that created the person! We were made in the image of God, and because he is intelligent and creative so are we! But yes, my final answer is our intelligence comes from God. This God that created you, however, is not distant and far off, rather he knows you personally and long for you to be in relationship with Him. We were created by Him, for Him, like Him, and we need Him. But we have sinned, we have broken His holy standard, and the punishment worthy is hell, Sheol. God didn't create us this way, but we - mankind - chose sin, our way, over his way, and the punishment worthy is hell I won't softpedal hell, it is thee worst thing ever. You are alone for ETERNITY, constant pain for ETERNITY, constant sorrow fot ETERNITY. It never ends, and because our sins we all deserveto go there. God desires that no one goes to hell, so he gave us a way out back to Him. This way is Jesus(yeah he was a real person, there are Roman legal writings about Jesus of Nazareth, along with Josephus, a non-believer that Jesus was the Messiah, and the gospels, which are very historicaly sound, etc.), who is fully God and fully man, who, although he was tempted in every way, lived a perfect life and never sinned, humbled himself to wash others feet, serving them but most of all serving God, he died on the cross, taking the wrath of God in our place, for our sins. He was the perfect lamb, the perfect sacrifice, that through him we might enter back into relationship with with God and might be with him in heaven, how he created it to be. This is Gods grace, that he forgives us and saves us. But, some have chosen not even to accept His grace but regect it. No matter what you've done He willl always forgive. I plead with you, if you haven't already, to accept his gift. If you want to, bow your head and pray(He's real and He really listens). Tell him you need Him, your sinful and you've lived a sinful life, and you want to accept His gift of eternal salvation and for him to be your Lord and savior. Ask him to come into your heart and change your life. Thank Him, and tell him your life is completely in his hands, then say Amen. If you've just done this, rejoice, because you have been saved. I encourage you not to go on living as you have before, but now to live for Him. Find a Bible and read the first few books of the New Testament. Find a Christian church, go to one of the services and tell someone who works there that you just became a believer aand want to learn more about God and Jesus. I pray you will continue with Christ. The Christian life isn't the most comfortable life, the ''best'' by the world's standards, or the funnest, but in the end it pays off the most for ETERNITY, and it is the only way to heaven. Remember, something doesn't come from nothing. The whole universe wasn't just always here, it was created by God. So my long answer to the question is intelligence in humans came from an intelligent creator, God.

[darkmatter42]

I believe that intelligence comes from consciousness.