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Optimism is good, but at this point, you're driving past believing in the intrinsic awesome of human beings into the territory of magical thinking. "Amount of

Optimism is good, but at this point, you're driving past believing in the intrinsic awesome of human beings into the territory of magical thinking. "Amount of knowledge" isn't a useful metric, as anyone in pedagogy can tell you. It's not even about "healthiness", which is meaningless, or disability, which is less meaningless. Brains are not hard disks. They aren't knowledge storage machines. That's just one of its minor functions.

smtddr 13y ago
You're completely right. This discussion is almost impossible since, for the human brain, I can't define "knowledge", "capacity", "limit", "intellect". I mean really, what does it mean for a human brain to reach capacity anyway? What function is it not able to do once it reaches that point? What does it mean to be smart or intellectual? Do we all agree that Stephen Hawking is those things? Why? I don't know and I can't even begin to debate it, I'm not smart enough. ;)
- saraid216 13y ago
  > I don't know and I can't even begin to debate it, I'm not smart enough. Well, no. You lack the knowledge for having a useful discussion about it. Spend time brushing up on pedagogical techniques, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology: all the fields that touch on growth in the mental dimensions of a human being. My own expertise is pretty minimal, but just seeing the cutting edge of the research is fascinating and can help keep you honest when making claims. This isn't a political/stylistic discussion. It rests on factual foundations, where people have actually looked at fMRIs or done longitudinal studies on schools or scrutinized the brain composition of different age groups.
  - smtddr 13y ago
    Science doesn't fully understand the human brain so I cannot agree that intelligence can be fully measured by any scientific means today. We have some tests, but the value of them is debated.

smtddr 13y ago

You're completely right. This discussion is almost impossible since, for the human brain, I can't define "knowledge", "capacity", "limit", "intellect". I mean really, what does it mean for a human brain to reach capacity anyway? What function is it not able to do once it reaches that point? What does it mean to be smart or intellectual? Do we all agree that Stephen Hawking is those things? Why? I don't know and I can't even begin to debate it, I'm not smart enough. ;)

saraid216 13y ago
> I don't know and I can't even begin to debate it, I'm not smart enough. Well, no. You lack the knowledge for having a useful discussion about it. Spend time brushing up on pedagogical techniques, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology: all the fields that touch on growth in the mental dimensions of a human being. My own expertise is pretty minimal, but just seeing the cutting edge of the research is fascinating and can help keep you honest when making claims. This isn't a political/stylistic discussion. It rests on factual foundations, where people have actually looked at fMRIs or done longitudinal studies on schools or scrutinized the brain composition of different age groups.
- smtddr 13y ago
  Science doesn't fully understand the human brain so I cannot agree that intelligence can be fully measured by any scientific means today. We have some tests, but the value of them is debated.