The Nature of Intelligence

Arthur C. Clarke once said that “it has yet to be proved that intelligence has any survival value.” It’s a statement that could still hold true today. Does our intelligence make us superior to other animals, or will it lead to our downfall?

Making Charlie More Smarter

Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love.

One of the strongest emotional reactions I’ve ever had to a work is when I got to the end of Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon. I have never felt more connected to a character than Charlie. In his last diary entry where he apologises for everything that’s happened I just wanted to hold his hand and tell him that it’s okay, that it’s not his fault.

In the novel Charlie, with an IQ of 68, is offered the chance for an experimental surgery to improve his intelligence. The experiment is successful, and as he grows more intelligent his relationships with his friends deteriorate. He has a relationship that ends poorly.

His superior intelligence causes him to become pretentious and, while he doesn’t become a moustache -twirling villain, he does some fairly immoral things. As the end of the story draws near it turns out the effects of the experiment are temporary and his mind slowly reverts back to its original state. In his final diary entry he fails to understand the nuances of everything that happens, blaming himself for it all and apologising for all the things he did.

It’s a heartbreaking story, and one that leaves a lot of questions swirling in your mind. Among these is the nature versus nurture question. Was Charlie a bad person who wasn’t smart enough to do bad things? Or was it having intelligence thrust upon him in an unnatural way that made him a bad person? Or did he end up doing bad things because he had no experience in how to deal with being smart?

What is the nature of intelligence and how does it affect our behaviour?

Is Intelligence Useful?

Intelligence is very much a two-edged sword, Captain-Doctor. It is useful only up to a point. It interferes with the business of living. Life, and intelligence, do not mix very well. They are not at all closely related, as you childishly assume.

In Bruce Sterling’s Swarm two factions are mentioned that are attempting to improve their intelligence, among other abilities, via different philosophies. The Mechanists use technology to enhance themselves, mechanical and digital implants to give themselves new abilities. The Reshapers prefer to take a genetic route, using selective breeding and genetic manipulation to create a more “natural” superior being.

We follow two Reshaper protagonists studying a large space-based hive mind. Their goal is to prevent the Mechanists from discovering the alien species, as well as attempt to learn how to control and ultimately weaponise the hive.

They have learned how to use pheromones to communicate with and partially control the creatures within. Throughout the story we are led to believe that one of the characters has studied the species well enough to be able to live among them in a sort-of symbiosis.

At the end of the short story one of the scientists is killed and used as a puppet to talk to the other. Swarm, as it calls itself, explains that a defense mechanism has been triggered to defend the Swarm, granting it intelligence enough to assess the threat. It explains that usually it lies dormant, as intelligence is not needed for survival.

Swarm explains that it is an ancient race and it has seen many young races like humanity destroy itself in the pursuit of knowledge. The only reason it has survived is by studying these races and using what they learn for the next time they are attacked. Once the race wipes itself out again, it returns to its unintelligent hive mind state, laying dormant for thousands upon thousands of years before the next “intelligent” race comes along.

What Will Make Us Extinct

You guys, the truth is way more depressing. They are not even smart enough to be as evil as you’re giving them credit for.

2021’s Don’t Look Up follows a couple of scientist who discover an asteroid hurtling toward the Earth, the kind that will lead to the destruction of the human race. Throughout the film they are frustrated by people not taking it serious enough, interviewers not getting the point, being accused of conspiracies, and having memes created around them.

Politicians eventually get on board with their plan to stop the asteroid, but the plug is pulled when they discover valuable minerals could be harvested by following another plan proposed by Not-Elon-Musk. To get people to support the plan, a political campaign starts with the slogan Don’t Look Up, to convince people not to even look for the asteroid-that-definitely-won’t-kill-us-all.

In the end the scientists give up. They spend their last days with their families, or resort to sex, drugs, and rock and roll to at least enjoy their last few days. The asteroid hits. Humanity is wiped out.

The Twist You Saw Coming

If intelligence means using scientific evidence as the basis for changing human lifestyles to be congruent with natural law, humankind is not displaying much intelligence.

Don’t Look Up is an obvious allegory for Climate Change and humanity’s reaction to it. Like the real Elon Musk, Not-Elon-Musk is assumed to be smarter than the scientists simply because he is a better businessman. Humanity is willing to turn a blind eye to the disaster as long as it makes their lives easier.

The scientists are forced to watch as humanity ignores their warnings and goes beyond the point of no return. Eventually they are forced to accept the inevitable and try not to go out with a whimper.

George Carlin once asked us to imagine a person of average intelligence, and to realise that half of humanity is even dumber than that. Yet I think most people would agree that even the dumbest of humans are smarter than animals. It gets even more complicated when we know otherwise intelligent people who are sucked into odd beliefs and ideas that don’t make any real sense.

I want to take an aside here to acknowledge that I’m ignoring a lot of the complexities of defining intelligence here. Just because someone is a great astrophysicist, or neurosurgeon, or businessman, doesn’t mean they are all-knowing. They are usually a lot less smart outside of their field.

And it is known that people with cognitive disadvantages can be capable of feats that could be described as super-intelligent. There isn’t really such a thing as a “dumb” person – really the point I’m trying to make here is that humans are (probably) the most intelligent animals on the plant.

We as a species are the arguably the most intelligent on the planet. We are also the only ones to wipe out entire species and to cause irreparable damage to the planet. As Swarm warns in Sterling’s story: our intelligence, our urge to grow and develop, is leading to our extinction.

Because, as in Don’t Look Up, the warnings of our scientists have fallen on deaf ears. The damage to the planet is irreversible (at least for the foreseeable future). Climate Denialists still exist, and politicians even run their campaigns based on ignoring the “Climate Conspiracy”. If we assume that humanity is intelligent, and that this is how intelligent animals behave, we need to heed the warning of Swarm and Don’t Look Up and ask: