Intelligence II

I had thought to just start writing...mainly a rant, I suppose, on how sometimes I seem to have to simply get away from both TV (I’ve started talking to it now) and the Internet. The main reason being that, from my perspective, it becomes pointless. Obviously, it’s pointless to talk back to the TV, other than a momentary flash of emotional satisfaction, but often online becomes, if possible, even more frustrating because you can explain things to people online, and yet so few seem to understand or even care. Sometimes I scold myself too, because I should know better. I DO know better, at least I think I do. I think I know that relatively few people are highly intelligent or ever will be, for the same basic reason that no midget will ever grow to six feet tall. After all, 100 is said to be the average or “mean” IQ. Yes, I know there are many problems with the standardized IQ tests...still, have you ever tried to have a deep philosophical or scientific conversation with someone whose IQ is 100?

That reminded me of this boy I heard about in the news.
"The boy wonder, who taught himself calculus, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in a week, is now tutoring fellow college classmates after hours. And now Jake has embarked on his most ambitious project yet - his own 'expanded version of Einstein's theory of relativity'."

Has an IQ of 170, higher than that of Einstein, and WAY higher than mine. Indisputably a genius. I’m not quite certain exactly what calculus even IS, much less anything substantial about it. I suppose I might learn all about it if I had sufficient motivation to do so. But if it doesn’t come easily and naturally, where might such motivation come from?

He was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, said to be a mild form of autism. Apparently a bit of a savant regarding maths and physics, even though he apparently doesn’t seem to have any trouble getting along in general with other people...aside from the fact that his thinking is way above that of almost everyone else. I am very curious about his thoughts on things that are not not directly related to maths and physics...would he be a genius, in my opinion, if I heard his views on life after death, moral philosophy, etc.? Aside from fields in which advanced knowledge of mathematics is a must, how does one measure intelligence or genius? Were Freud and Jung in the genius category? Robert G. Ingersoll?

Reasons are abundant why I might be a bit of a ‘social outcast’ in most circumstances, everything from appearance to atheism. In most gatherings I would be in, such as family get-togethers, I get on just fine. I mainly keep quiet unless I see an opening to interject a bit of humor. There is certainly no discussion of politics or religion...I have never been in a “natural" social group in which doing that would not result in police and doctors. By “natural”, I mean a group I might normally be expected to be in, such as a family thing, rather than some freethought or atheist group meeting. The talk at such events is hunting, fishing, work, maybe sports like NASCAR or football (though you have to be careful with NASCAR because it appears to be a love it or hate it kind of thing). MY thoughts tend to be some of the things I mentioned in a previous blog...latest news from science and technology; growing a human ear on the back of a mouse; discussing what might be a marker beyond which we could say with certainty, “that ‘machine’ is intelligent”. Luckily for me I do find some people online with whom I can talk about such things...so far I have yet to meet such a person...in person.

Naturally Jacob (the genius boy mentioned above) is something of a celebrity now, but if I were to encounter such a person, I wonder if I could have a meaningful conversation with them about physics? I think I could as long as we talked about the conclusions drawn, the meanings, and didn’t get into calculations and equations...if we did that I’d be lost and have no idea what’s going on...you might as well be speaking Hebrew or Klingon to me.

Is there a similar distinction or translation needed between “spiritual” people and “hard-nosed scientific atheists” in order to have any understanding? Or is it closer to trying to get a person with an IQ of 50 to understand Jacob’s maths? Here’s a thing I wonder...do people who were born blind ever see any colors in their dreams?

Where do you “go” when you are put under anesthesia which renders you totally unconscious? What’s the difference between a person who genuinely wonders what the answer to that is, and a person who thinks it is a dumb question because the answer is so obvious? Why do so many people ignore the ‘U’ in UFO and instantly assign it an extraterrestrial identity? Why do so many people ignore the ‘near’ in Near Death Experience? Why do more than 80 percent of Americans ‘believe in the soul’ according to some sources? Is it a similar thing to my not being able to understand a blackboard full of equations with symbols I have never even seen before?

An irony...when I was publishing my little 'newsletter’, for lack of a better description, that I called SOAR, I had roughly 50 to 60 people who paid money to subscribe. Presumably virtually all of them read most of it. Like everyone else online, I now have access to instant and global publishing...and far fewer readers.

I might enjoy raising this kid...at least I could turn him off when I’ve had enough. Milo the virtual boy.

Why do so many people, even some scientists, see an “us vs them” future scenario between humans and AI’s or cyborgs? Why can they not see that we will BE the cyborgs?

There is a rare delusional disorder called Capgras. You can