SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Evolution
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: LLCF who wrote (9114)9/24/2010 12:11:26 AM
From: Solon1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) of 69300
 
I am certain we are going to run into a misunderstanding based on linguistics beginning with my comment that it depends how you define intelligence. And it certainly relates to what you and I consider to be defined as "making choices".

For instance, do you think a thermostat is "intelligent"?? Do you think it makes "choices" when it turns the heat on or switches it off? Is it making "decisions"?? Can it "choose" NOT to do what must happen when the bimetallic strips expand or contract?

Can the molecules of water "choose" not to move faster when struck by solar radiation?

The biology of living things is extremely complex and we know little about it. But do we know enough about molecular biology to justify using terms normally associated with "cognitive processes" when discussing their "behaviors"??

Java script has "behaviors" because we have chosen to define these actions as events intersecting an object to make an action or behavior. But we know these are not cognitive behaviors or processes. Our use of the word "behaviors" is linguistic license.

So I think the distinction between cognitive intelligence versus a sunflower "turning" her face to the sun is an important distinction.

Everything has an environment and everything "does something" in "response" to that environment. If that is all that is required to assert intelligence, then the rocks have it and the light that gets bent (or "chooses" to bend)when passing through various media has it and everything that is acted upon by any other thing (any thing that exists, in other words) has it.

I always believed that intelligence had an opposite--just as loud has quiet or up has down...but what the Hell. Live and learn!
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News