What is Intelligence?

Man, of all creatures, is physically the most ill equipped in the world. He can not fly like a bird, can be killed by tiny insect, can not swim like fish, doesn’t have an eye of an eagle, nor does he have the claws and teeth of a wild cat. Physically, man is helpless and defenseless.
But nature is reasonable and kind. Nature’s biggest gift to man is an ability to think, his intelligence.

What is Intelligence? I have this question since I got my first result sheet. Nobody was ever able to give me a proper answer to this. Majority of the people think those who are good at mathematics, know logic, understand physics or score good marks in competitive exams are intelligent. So is the academics of a person is a measure for intelligence? I do not think so. Then what about Einstein? He was debarred from the school, as he was not at par with other students. Till his early twenties, he was an ordinary person and at the age of 27 he got the Nobel Prize. There are many more examples like this. It certainly shows that academics cannot be the measure for judging the brain.

After lot of analysis and research, scientist came up with so-called systematic method called IQ. This was the first scientific method evolved to calculate Intelligence, but still there is a long way to go. I am not convinced with this because if Sachin tendulkar gives this test I am sure that his IQ will be just average. And that is the major loophole in this test. Sachin has not only great cricketing skills but has a great cricketing brain. He is as intelligent as Vishwanath Anand but nobody will talk about Sachin’s intelligence. Only because his talent does not fit into our conventional methods which are developed to measure intelligence.

Hariprasad Chourasia, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchil, Pele these are and many more legends of our society and are as intelligent as Sir Newton and Einstein.

A common man crossing the road has the right judgment of a vehicle going and based on his judgment he or she takes the decision whether to cross the road or not. From my point of view he is using the same equations distance = speed*time or v = ut +at, what the scientist have developed and mapped to the equations.
In my above argument I am not taking away the credits of the scientist or Economist. They are the legends and serve our society to the greatest. My point of argument is we need to consider a lot of other dimensions while judging the intelligence of a person.

So the question remains still unanswered whom to be called intelligent? According to me every person is intelligent, where he is interested in. If one could understand his likings and cultivate it, he is bound to become an expert in his field. For me intelligence is analyzing our weaknesses, improving on those and there by increasing our efficiency. Intelligence is not a natural gift to an individual. Nobody is intelligent or genius by birth. One can certainly improve it, with sincere effort and dedication.

In the field of Artificial Intelligence, we have to consider lot of aspects of our brain. The task is difficult, as still we are not able to understand the brain to the fullest. So for AI, we will need to see intelligence in a broader perspective. If we could find the answers of these questions then it will be a great leap the field of AI for the mankind. We are not going to get answers from only scientist but we have to take the help from people from all layers of the society. The model for AI should consider characteristics of an individual and should not be generic.

It has been a long journey for the mankind. Initially man has struggled for the survival. During that time he learnt self-defense. His intelligence is clearly differentiated from other animals. He can create his own environment, whereas animals adapt to their environment. With his ideas he invented tools that has given him efficiency in his productivity. Being a social he started living in colonies and developed commerce to fulfill his needs in a better way. Later on the concept of countries evolved. He started thinking people from other countries as foreigners. He used his intelligence to develop weapons for his self-defense assuming there is a great danger to his existence from foreigners. That was a grave mistake the mankind has ever committed.

Today nations are spending huge amount of money for defense. India is spending two to three million $ everyday on defense. Countries like India, Pakistan cannot boost of being nuclear power nation. When are we really going to understand the disaster it will cause to the mankind? Are we really using our intelligence to use the nuclear power for the welfare of human being? I think the real intelligence lies in understanding that. We need to become mature and need to think at the global level instead of just at country level. Nature has given us thinking capability, now it is in our hands to use that power in the best possible manner.