Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3236 - 3240 (6-10 June 2016)
Morituri:
--- Quote from: jheartney on 10 Jun 2016, 08:08 ---
--- Quote from: oddtail on 10 Jun 2016, 05:28 ---In other words, if there were a hypothetical species that is able to solve insanely difficult problems, but is not able to meaningfully communicate (due to its evolutionary history or whatever) would be considered unintelligent.
--- End quote ---
This raises the question of how this hypothetical non-communicative species is going to grasp an insanely difficult abstract problem if there's no way to communicate the problem to it. Language is part of how we organize the world conceptually, and without language most of abstract reasoning is probably unreachable.
--- End quote ---
Indeed. More to the point though, what use has a creature for the ability to solve insanely complex abstract problems, in the absence of an ability to communicate? The ability would do the creature no good. Thus evolution could not possibly create such a creature.
Specifically: human-style intelligence and communications are inextricably linked. Intelligence was so valuable for our own ancestors (I think so anyway) because they could plan coordinated actions or specialize into individual tasks and communicate their needs and abilities to contribute. Want complex problem solving? Try to hunt deer that can run six times faster than you with spears and six guys. You have to use the landscape and terrain, you have to use tactics, you have to execute them while widely separated after agreeing what they will be, and you have to anticipate how the deer thinks and what it will do. Without communication, you can't do those things.
Want some more complex problem solving? Mess around with hides until you figure out how to tan them into covers that will keep you warm when you sleep. Want to leverage that problem-solving so it affects more than one band of people? Now you need communication. If our ancestors hadn't had communication, our brains would be a waste of biological energy.
I think about this stuff a lot. If you want to read a series of articles spread over a bunch of months, I've written them. If you don't, that's cool too; they're long. But I hope that some of them may interest you and provoke further thought if you're thinking about this stuff.
http://dillingers.com/blog/2015/12/15/philosophy-science-and-consciousness/
http://dillingers.com/blog/2016/03/17/provoking-intelligence/
http://dillingers.com/blog/2016/04/29/the-world-of-an-ai/
http://dillingers.com/blog/2016/05/06/characteristics-of-human-style-intelligence/
Storel:
Thanks for the links, Morituri. I've only read the first one so far, but it made lots of sense and I'm looking forward to reading the rest.
A couple of people above mentioned the novel Blindsight, by Peter Watts, and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it already. It's a science fiction novel about first contact with aliens that appear to have intelligence without consciousness, and the author has some very cutting-edge research about consciousness in his bibliography. I don't generally gush about novels, but I would honestly call this a tour-de-force and I'd love to hear what you think about it. I got it pretty inexpensively as an e-book from Barnes & Noble, and I'm sure Amazon would have it too.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version