Friday, July 24, 2015

Science of Highest form of intelligence

There are so many answers, so many interesting ideas to this very interesting question. However, as near as I can tell by scrolling down forever it seems no-one has offered an answer founded in science. Here it is. 

If we want to find the 'highest form of intelligence', the obvious place to start is the 'lowest form of intelligence', then to work our way up and see where it takes us.  This exercise was completed, very effectively, by Frank T. Vertosick Jr. in the book, The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing. However, Vertosick unfortunately stopped short of the goal, probably due to the common error in scientific thinking - that we must separate 'science' from 'spirit'. 

The lowest form of intelligence resides in chemicals that learn to cooperate to reproduce. Vertosick wrote "When I speak of intelligence, I mean the general ability to store past experiences and use that information to solve future problems. I'm not limiting my discussion to human intelligence... I call this 'brain chauvinism', and I will refute it by showing that all living things -- even those entirely devoid of nervous systems -- can (and must) use some sort of reason to survive... In other words, to be alive, one must think."

Vertosick then goes on to explain the source of intelligence "This book looks at intelligence as an emergent property of large groups. An emergent property is a property manifested by the whole group, even though the same property isn't apparent in any of the individuals comprising the group.... human intelligence is an emergent property of groups of nerve cells. And immune intelligence is an emergent property of a group of immune cells, cellular intelligence is an emergent property of a group of enzymes, and so on.... Networks are the basis of living intelligence in all scales of life from cell to ecosystem."

The logical conclusion is that no human, no single being, not even any group of humans can attain the highest form of intelligence. 

Genes and other genetic components network and cooperate to create the component of DNA, of viruses, and of life. This networking and cooperation create life, health, and intelligence from lower level components.  These form networks with other active chemicals, enzymes, etc. and cooperate to create cells - which have a higher level of intelligence that simple genetic components, viruses, etc..  Cells 'learn' to cooperate and create cell masses and then tissues comprised of different cell types, that have intelligence higher than any simple cell. Cell masses cooperate to create a body, bodily organs and organ systems through cooperation that rises above the intelligence of cells. The body develops sensory systems, that evolve into nervous systems - an even higher level of intelligence.  Nervous systems mass and cooperate to create brain components for vision, hearing, etc that are more sophisticated in their ability to sense, to learn, to predict.  Brain components cooperate to create the mind, which rises above the body and learns to control the body.  A higher level of intelligence.  

Vertosick stops here and does not proceed further up the hierarchy in a comprehensive fashion. However, this hierarchy of life is also the hierarchy of healthicine (Hierarchy of Healthicine- History and Exploration), and we can use that model to rise higher in the levels of intelligence.  

Minds and spirits evolve together.  Every mammal clearly has 'spirit', feeling and acting excited, depressed, happy, hungry, etc. at different times. These feelings are above the level of 'senses' and above the simple functions of the mind - memory, calculation, etc. The spirit arises from minds or mind components working together to create a higher intelligence. 

Above spirits, we have communities of people. Which would include communities not just of body, not just of minds, but communities of spirits as well.  Clearly communities of people can remember more, and resolve problems that single humans cannot resolve.  We can write problems down, and work at them over centuries - there are many examples, and solve them by community cooperation and effort over time. 

Now we can see the common thread. Communities of genetic components create DNA and simple life forms like viruses. Communities of simple life forms create cells.  Communities of cells create tissues, which create organs, and bodies, communities of organs and body parts create living systems like our digestive systems, respiratory systems, hormonal systems, immune systems, nervous systems and more. Communities of systems create more and more complex, more and more intelligent bodies, which develop more complex, more and more intelligent minds and spirits. Communities of individual bodies, minds, and spirits cooperate to create The Beatles, Symphony Orchestras, religions, and many more thing that no individual could create or be by themselves. The intelligence of a city clearly rises above the intelligence of individuals, solving memory and logical problems that individuals cannot solve - but at the same time, it is not 'conscious' of its own intelligence.

Of course not every group, or community, of people creates a higher level of intelligence.  A group can just as easily, perhaps easier, create an unintelligent mob, that does really stupid things.  These groups too can exist over long periods of time - longer than any single lifetime. One of the most important aspects of intelligence includes the ability to make errors, and hopefully, eventually, to learn from those errors. 

The highest form of intelligence is also the lowest form of intelligence. It is the intelligence of groups, knowingly, or unknowingly cooperating to create a new intelligence at a higher level. 

The highest form of intelligence is the intelligence of cooperation to attain goals that were not even seen as possible, or useful, or anything, by the individual components that are creating it. 

Thinking that some aspect of human intelligence could be the 'highest form of intelligence' is simply, to use the words of Vertosick "brain chauvinism". We are not as intelligent as we think. We are only as intelligent as we can work together to attain goals at levels higher than those of the individual.
to your health, tracy

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