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Like I said the term is very fraught both in philosophy and the sciences. Many volumes have been written about this in philosophy (IMO the only correct outlet f
by runarberg 2y ago
Like I said the term is very fraught both in philosophy and the sciences. Many volumes have been written about this in philosophy (IMO the only correct outlet for the discussion) and there is no consensus on what to do with it.
My main problem with the notion of generalized intelligence (in philosophy; I have tons of problems with it in psychology) is it turns out to be rather arbitrary what counts towards general intelligence. Abstract thought and project planning seems to an essential component, but we have no idea how abstract thought and project planning goes on in non-human systems. In nature we have to look at the results and infer what the goals were with the behavior. No doubt we are missing a ton of intelligent behavior among several animals—maybe even pants and fungi—just because we don’t fully understand the goals of the organism.
That said though, I think our understanding of the natural world is pretty unparalleled by other species, and using this knowledge we have produced some very impressive intelligent behavior which no other species is capable of. But I have a hard time believing that humans are uniquely capable of this understanding nor of applying this understanding. For examples, elephants have shown they are capable of inter-generational knowledge and culture. I don’t know if elephants had access to the same instruments as we, that they would be able to pass this knowledge down generations on build up on them.
- bgnn 2y agoI agree with you fully. Thank you for the interesting discussion.