What is intelligence?

[LadyShea]

Here are some links on some Dolphin "stuff" ... I find the subject quite fasinating so sorry if anyone is bored by this

.....There was no random or apparent accidental contacts before the dolphin learned how. The same thing happened with three different dolphins. They seemed to anticipate the purpose of the switch. Probably from seeing him push it and connecting the push to the reward. Dr. Lilly had used this same technique on monkeys and made the statement that it usually took a chimp about 100 random tries before he learned to push the button, and then a few more to learn how to push the button.

From here http://www.polaris.net/~rblacks/dolphins.htm

 

[LightBearer]

Originally posted by foolsparade
LightBearer: animals ARE intelligent. Do animals have a memory, are they able to learn, are they able to communicate with themselves and us humans?? Yes. 

 

Computers can do the same thing and their just machines.

 

[Mid]

I dont know if this was said already, but here goes.

In my view, intelligence is the ability to learn and retain knowlege. Depending on how intelligent something is, would result in the speed, and efficiency in which information is retained.

 

[Mid]

ahhhhhhh, and the ability to USE the knowledge that they had learned.

 

[Mid]

Wisdom I would define as the amount of understood knowledge that an organism obtains. It has little to do with intelligence. The opposite is ignorance. A genious can be ignorant, and someone of average intelligence can be unbelievably wise.

 

[Stormy]

There are many more attributes that I attach to intelligence, and I think I fit the bill for all of them

If you believe that you are intelligent, than you probably do not possess a very high level of intelligence at all.

Intelligence is relative ... we are all idiots.

We know only a fraction of what there is to know and much of that we think we understand is wrong.

 

[PennyPixee]

intelligence is the ability you have to look at the world around you and see the truth the God exists

~pixee~

 

[Sky]

Animals (including dolphins) are stupid, brainless beasts which act on instinct, not intelligence.

 

[FordPrefect]

Originally posted by Stormy
If you believe that you are intelligent, than you probably do not possess a very high level of intelligence at all.

Intelligence is relative ... we are all idiots.

We know only a fraction of what there is to know and much of that we think we understand is wrong.

I never said my SAT scores were higher than anyone elses. Nor did I claim to have a high IQ. But I am intelligent. How do I know this? Well, I am able to learn, I am able to anticipate, (good point, LadyShea) I am able to remember, I am able to think abstractly, I am able to formulate moral guidelines for myself (ok, this is more like wisdom), etc.

I am not the shining example of these attributes of intelligence, but I do have some level of each. That is how I know I am intelligent. I also think my cats are intelligent. They may not be the shining example of "catdom" but they are pretty clever. They learn, they remember.  So I consider them to be intelligent.

So how does my thinking that I am intelligent make me, or you, an idiot? Whether or not we know everything there is to know, is irrelevant to the question of what is intelligence.

PennyPixee, that is not what intelligence is either. That is a judgement based on emotion and psychological need for a higher power.

Sky77, if you add humans to that list, I would pretty much agree with you, just on principle. Especially if we are using the definition of intelligence that many are using in this thread.

 

[Stormy]

FordPrefect : Ok I get it now. You and your cat are both intelligent.

Its a dumb thread anyway.

 

[DNAunion]

David Gould: Memory and the ability to learn are the two crucial ones.

DNAunion: Do sperm have some form of memory????

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992729

What if ("... and oh what a big if...") more research shows that this 'memory' allows even one sperm to learn to successfully navigate its way through a short maze?????

 

[FordPrefect]

First I am not intelligent, then my thread is dumb... Stormy, you annoy me. And you still don't get it...

 

[Stormy]

What is it I don't get??

You think intelligence is the ability to learn plus remember what you have learned?

That only amounts to recording another's intelligence and making it your own. I have seen many an educated idiot.

First I am not intelligent, then my thread is dumb... Stormy, you annoy me. And you still don't get it...

Sorry but sometimes when I am annoyed I become annoying.

I will try harder to be nice.

 

[FordPrefect]

"You think intelligence is the ability to learn plus remember what you have learned?" - close, I think those are attributes of whatever intelligence is. However, it is my turn to apologize, I was in a bad space when I replied yesterday, and I was somewhat short, so here is a sorry right back at ya.

On another note, DNAunion's question is rather interesting, even though I can't come close to speculating what that would imply.