Seasons

I agree, the more exposure bots get the better.

We're supposed to be doing Artificial Intelligence. Well, it's pretty easy to do something artificial, but, what is intelligence?

I smell the beginning of a long discussion.

I'll get the flippant answer out of the way first: I define intelligence as knowing when to duck.

The more serious one is going to take a while.

Intelligence in humans is so complex, there is the general intelligence then there are all the aptitudes like art, music, math and literature. Then there is just plain old common sense. I have know brilliant people that just couldn't get by in life with out a "keeper". I do think the intelligence tests they use now are almost worthless if not just silly.

I have know brilliant people that just couldn't get by in life with out a "keeper".

In what did their brilliance consist?

One girl I knew spoke English, Chinese and French by two. Did high school level work by seven. Burnt out at 20 and ended up drinking like a fish.
Einstein had assistants check that he shaved both sides of his face and had on two socks before lectures. His family thought he was slow when he was young, all he did was stare at walls..He was thinking.
Knew a history professor that had a photographic memory. Was brilliant. He admitted he would starve to death if his wife and family didn't feed, cloth and care for him. He was too busy thinking to be bothered.

I don't mean all geniuses are that way, but many don't fit into life in a way that others do. Many child proteges' have a tendency to lead sad lives.
Then I have know artists, that did great work, that couldn't have an IQ out of the double digit range.

So perhaps the brain specializes in one thing, or a small number of things, at the expense of the rest?

I suppose intelligence has something to do with problem solving. There is a goal, and it can be reached, but only in a complicated way.

Two things worry me, about the future of intelligence.
The world looks for skills in math and science, but doesn't seem to look for qualities of genius in things like caring. Well rarely, they did honor Mother Teresa
The other thing is how many geniuses are wasted in our world. I think of children that geneticly could be geniuses but spend their lives searching for food, and lose gray matter to starvation. How many children are effected each year by their mothers use of alcohol and drugs?

Many many! Not to mention malnutrition, which both in and ex utero can permanently stunt brain growth.

Regarding that thing about geniuses who can't do the more mundane things in life, it makes me wonder about things like autism and the like being more of a spectrum than a discrete entity. I mean there are examples of many an autistic person who is truly gifted at art or maths or whatever who can't get by in real life etc. Perhaps these geniuses are another form of mild autistic, the difference being that their ability to interact socially is higher than the more obvious autistic, so it's less obvious that there are aspects of "regular" life that they just can't get.

Ambition and drive are another aspect of "problem solving" that gets little attention. It seems that someone of lesser intelligence and high motivation will succeed where a more lazy genius won't. Look at politics, not very many world leaders could be called geniuses.

Most probably paid the teachers off in order to graduate school at all. I'll bet most politicians couldn't manage my 11th grade world history homework. And Im in public school...