Theory of no Intelligence
What is intellect? We think we understand, but we can’t express this systematically. We only gauge the presence of intellect by secondary properties, such as the ability to adapt to changing environments, the ability to solve problems, the ability to reason beyond what is perceived. We also have a number of IQ tests that measure… something.
We are proud of ourselves designing sophisticated technology, building huge interconnected cities and infrastructure. We think we reached great understanding of the world around us, that we have conquered fire, water, air, and electricity. We can organize information flows in a way that allows us to collect and produce more data than a single human could naturally do.
But, if we can’t pinpoint the intelligence, why do we think there is anything at all?
Let’s have a look at an anthill, at the way it’s emerging from nothing, branch by branch, forming an elaborate structure well above the ground. It protects itself, it has seasonal metabolism, it has complexity. It is built by creatures with one of the most primitive neural systems. Are they also intelligent, or is this some sort of a “collective” intelligence we are dealing with?
Looking at the animal kingdom at large, it’s shocking to realize the diversity of skills and properties that are featured by different species around the world. We get inspired by the animal features, as if they were designed by superior minds. We explain some of it with evolution, but could evolutionary process itself be a manifestation of a more general force that exists in nature?
Let’s change the scenery even more. There is a large mass of gas mixed with heavier particles swirling around a hot star. It’s a mess… and yet, at large time scales we’d see the planets forming, eventually some may even get vast oceans, blue skies, and great canyons. Planets become complex, self-sustainable, and… beautiful. Many people, realizing the magic of this process, believe in a super-power entity that created all this beauty by will.
We know things tend to break in time. We also know things tend to self-organize and persevere. When exactly one happens and not the other is, perhaps, the most interesting questions we could ask.
Now, imagine being a super entity looking at the Earth, and humanity, from above. All they see is that stuff gets self-organized. Some matter gets properties of being more persistent at some complexity levels (our bodies, minds, genes, etc) more than others. Suppose they don’t know what intelligence is, they can still explain what they see on Earth by just relating to all the other effects of nature they see: how planets are formed, how other animals self-organize and persevere.
Maybe all the richness and depth of our intellectual activity is just an illusion, the way we perceive the natural tendency of things to self-organize? It’s that feeling that you can fly when in fact you are just being pulled into a massive body by gravity.
Ok, suppose there is no intelligence, how does that help us? Answer is - we need to stop looking for a mythical intelligence and try to refocus on, and analyze (more generally) the cases and conditions at which matter tends to self-organize itself, and the complexity raises locally. Once we understand how to set up the environment, artificial life and intelligence (whatever we call it) will follow naturally.