So, the other day, in a conversation about intelligence (a topic dear to my heart and curiosity), someone boldly asked me…

What do you mean by Intelligence?

And I was stymied, initially, perhaps partly due to the fact that nearly no one ever asks this, and… perhaps, I had either failed to do so… or had not done so in far too long.

So I’ve been reflecting on the question. A question that, admittedly, is more confusing when being generalized about… or asked beyond any specific context that might ground one’s perspectives and answers in a familiar range of situations or frameworks… or »relationships (which are, I think, the fundamental context for intelligence).

The first thing that came to me was that it was (often) prophylactic. It wasn’t so much what one did with one’s mind, agreements or behavior… as what one would resist doing. This brings to mind the kind of wisdom that not only knows what might be said… but when to resist saying it.

As I thought about it more, another suggestion came to mind: the capability to continuously derive new perspectives and knowledge that improve upon one’s previously accessible relationships, views and opportunities… sometimes dramatically. The sense we associate with insight, or genius.

For me, the origin, the light with which this question is illuminated to me… is nature. Living places. Organism in environment. But this is not a sufficient answer to address the problems and opportunities inherent in formal representational cognition (what humans generally do, with langauge, knowledge, mathematics, technology, and so on).

But some part of a description of intelligence must remain nonverbal, and ‘won’t fit into language’ precisely because language is one of the behaviors that, ironically, both contributes to and catastrophically inhibits… our potentials for intelligence.

I am still thinking… and asking… you…

How would you describe the quality we refer to as intelligence?