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Intelligence is an egoistic concept, almost by definition. Something intelligent is something that acts like us. And intelligence can be turned into a scientif

by GuB-42 2y ago

Intelligence is an egoistic concept, almost by definition. Something intelligent is something that acts like us. And intelligence can be turned into a scientific concept, more or less. It is no to the case for consciousness, it is a purely subjective experience, you can only guess (not prove) that something else is conscious based subjective criteria. Is the sun intelligent and sentient? Today, we don't think so, but some people think is. And it was likely more common in ancient times. Now we associate intelligence with brains and we tend to give intelligence to things with brains, like elephants and apes, but not stars, and not computers. But maybe that's just because they have organs similar to humans.

HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
The meaning of words comes from usage. Originally "intelligence" was used to refer to a capability of humans and certain animals, but nowadays "AI" has become part of the common lexicon, and isn't going anywhere, so any dictionary definition needs to include that usage too (even if not everyone agrees that machines can be "intelligent"). Of course it's interesting to go beyond word usage and "I know it when I see it", and try to define what intelligence actually is - what, objectively, is this capability that people see and call intelligence? I think many people would struggle if asked this, but "ability to learn", and "ability to solve problems" are perhaps common themes that one might expect to come up, and is why many people are OK with the idea of AI, but would balk at describing the sun as intelligent. Of course we can do better than these intuitive definitions, by considering the evolutionary origins of intelligence, and what it really is, but that's not relevant to a discussion of what the word means in everyday usage, and what types of thing people are willing to ascribe intelligence to.

by GuB-42 2y ago

HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago

The meaning of words comes from usage. Originally "intelligence" was used to refer to a capability of humans and certain animals, but nowadays "AI" has become part of the common lexicon, and isn't going anywhere, so any dictionary definition needs to include that usage too (even if not everyone agrees that machines can be "intelligent"). Of course it's interesting to go beyond word usage and "I know it when I see it", and try to define what intelligence actually is - what, objectively, is this capability that people see and call intelligence? I think many people would struggle if asked this, but "ability to learn", and "ability to solve problems" are perhaps common themes that one might expect to come up, and is why many people are OK with the idea of AI, but would balk at describing the sun as intelligent. Of course we can do better than these intuitive definitions, by considering the evolutionary origins of intelligence, and what it really is, but that's not relevant to a discussion of what the word means in everyday usage, and what types of thing people are willing to ascribe intelligence to.