Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!oliveb!sun!cognito!randolph
From: randolph%cognito@Sun.COM (Randolph Fritz)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: language, thought, and culture
Message-ID: <45078@sun.uucp>
Date: 11 Mar 88 01:51:51 GMT
References: <44@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> <2894@pbhyf.UUCP> <888@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <326@thirdi.UUCP> <899@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <5776@dhw68k.cts.com>
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Reply-To: randolph@sun.UUCP (Randolph Fritz)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
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Keywords: thought modalities


Doug Salot (doug@dhw68k.cts.com) writes:

    What is intelligence?  Is the ability to communicate a neccessary
    precondition of intelligence?

As far as I can tell, most people's working definition of "smart" is "someone
who I can hold an interesting conversation with & who seems to know more about
what I am interested in than I do."  Other definitions include, "someone who
writes interesting scientific papers", "someone who does something that I care
about well".  To be identifiable, a human capability must be expressed (read:
communicated).

Examples: people with speech impediments are often perceived as stupid.  A
reading problem coming from the inability to distinguish left from right
(dyslexia) is often thought to indicate either stupidity or stubbornness.

Problem with the idea of intelligence is, it's not the least clear that
something called "intelligence" exists in any place other than the mind of an
observer.  Doug comments that he's never met a stupid mathemetician, yet
there's plenty of people to whom the very idea of mathematics is stupid -- it's
something they just don't care about, therefore must be stupid.

Doug also writes:

    Why can humans speak, but animals cannot (from comp.ai, "Why can't my cat
    talk?").

Humans and other mammals can generally communicate emotions -- cat facial
expressions are surprising similar to human, for instance.  Generally, other
mammals cannot communicate with each other unless they are raised together --
cats and dogs are the classic example.  We have not yet succeeded in
communicating abstract thought with other animals; we have not yet recognized
the expression of abstract thought in other animals.  It is generally assumed
that animals are not capable of abstract thought because of this.
--
Randolph Fritz
randolph@sun.com
sun!randolph