Are Human Beings Intelligent?

“So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.” Bertrand Russell     

Human beings arrogantly assume they are intelligent creatures having compared themselves to "lower" life forms that haven't invented wheels, money, or TV. Well, birds don't need wheels, monkeys barter sex for food, and lizards didn't write those awful final seasons of "Friends.” To be sure, humans do have a knack for turning abstract thoughts into inventions and for synthesizing information to predict the future. But if that’s all our definition of intelligence* entails, then I will retract what I’m about to say about human intelligence; um, that is, that humans are not intelligent. Sure, on occasion, humans do display an ability to reason, which is the other common requisite for intelligence and is the link between abstract thought and invention. But if we’re talking about how often we collectively exercise the ability to reason, especially in our day to day lives, then we don’t seem all that intelligent as a species. It seems that a number of other so-called intelligences take precedence as we go about our lives; interpersonal intelligence and bodily kinesthetic intelligence, for example. While using reason to create tools and predict the future is great, rare is the person who takes reasoning seriously as a tool for running their lives, much less the lives of anyone else.  

[* - I’m discounting our ability to communicate in a variety of ways as a facet of intelligence as many animals can do as much, though not with the same complexity. But I discount the complexity of human language as well because that complexity also drives misunderstandings.]

We are all aware of the headlines that alert us to common acts of stupidity, such as the man who calls police to report the theft of the marijuana he was illegally growing in his attic; as commonly reported by sources such as News of the Weird and the Darwin Awards. More examples of human stupidity include building huge cities in earthquake prone areas. Stupid. Living in a trailer home in Tornado Alley? Stupid. Giving teachers paychecks that are dwarfed by multi-million dollar high school drop-out athletes and rappers because the human need to be entertained is greater than the human need to be skilled or educated? Stupid. Oh, and have you ever heard Celion Dion cover AC/DC? I’m not even kidding! The average human is about as smart as a box of rocks, and that’s probably giving people too much credit as well as being an insult to rocks.

While these sorts of headlines tackle the everyday stupidity of humans, there are far worse examples of humans not exercising their supposed intelligence. Take for example the eagerness of the agriculture industries (BigAg as it is known in the U.S.) who stealthily implements genetically altered foods into our food chain without studying the long term effects these foods might have on us or the environment. Here, the afore mentioned ability to synthesize information in order to predict the future goes right out the window for the sake of the short term monetary gain by a minute handful of people. In this respect, we might also take for example industries that pour their toxic wastes into rivers and oceans and endanger what is arguably our most important resource, water. Moreover, what of energy companies that intentionally suppress the advancement of clean, renewable energy? And what about cloning? International law notwithstanding, surely humans will soon be cloned with regularity. Who will control this technology and for what purposes? Sadly, our ability to create is forever outpacing our ability to philosophically deal with the ‘intelligent’ Dr. Frankenstein within us. So, are we intelligent?

That’s a good question to ask oneself, especially when one believes in a god. Meta-studies appear to indicate a correlation between intelligence levels and strength of faith, where the more education one has appears to lead to a higher percentage of agnostics and non-practicing theists, if not outright atheists. There's a reason why religion is not taught in public school and colleges; it is not compatible with reason. If a theist is to seriously think about human intelligence, they should find themselves asking exactly why any supposedly intelligent creator would create an intelligent species with such an inceredible capacity for stupidity. Why would God create something so dumb that it would proclaim itself, in the face of an entire universe, as the pinnacle of creation? We’re talking about an entire species dedicated to the Black Swan Syndrome; we don’t know of any life as intelligent as humans, so humans must be the most intelligent in all the universe! We can continue to ask these types of questions: Why would a god create humans with such poor reason, who are constantly making choices that endanger their lives or otherwise make themselves unhappy? And why, in the name of all that is holy, would God like to be worshipped by these idiotic creations? Even the robots humans build do not require that the robots worship their creator.

The reasonable answer to these types of questions is that God, were He to exist, is a moron. But we do have to give credit where credit is due, for in a single stroke of cleverness, God gets off the hook for creating such dumb things as people by the virtue of faith. That’s right, faith, the dumbest psychological position a person can commit to; this is what excuses God from having made humans as unintelligent as they are. Human being are so unintelligent that it takes something like a human to create and define the word ‘intelligence,’ assign the word great moral value, and them proclaim itself to be intelligent. In much the same way that God cannot be moral by proclaiming to be the standard of morality, humans cannot be intelligent by proclaiming to be the standard of intelligence.

Naturally, someone is going to disagree with me and say something like, “Well, other animals cannot ask themselves why they exist,” which goes to show you exactly how stupid humans are as the person making this argument obviously hasn’t first asked if their argument is even logical. Humans aren’t intelligent. For every example one could give in favor of human intelligence, ten examples of human stupidity can be given in response. By contrast, humans are far more arrogant than they are intelligent, which would explain why supposed alien abductees claim aliens use people as lab rats. But this merely shows how dumb the aliens are, too. I don’t think they’re going to learn much from us. If they were smart, they’d already know that.

The Case for Human Extinction

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s humanity’s hubris. Collectively, human beings think of themselves as the most evolved species on the planet which in turn seems to cause people to believe they occupy some special place in the animal kingdom. Worse, people think that if we are in fact evolving, that we’re ever evolving into something better than we already are. Such a belief is demonstrably untrue. I submit as evidence (as if there weren’t already a ton of evidence to the contrary) the “handsome criminal,” an apparently attractive man and criminal whose mugshot recently went viral, presumably because he is handsome.

Obviously, the news agencies have nothing better to do than to help such schlock go viral; after all, they’re just trying to keep people entertained so that they don’t spend any time examining exactly how worthless their lives really are. To that end, I don’t really blame the media. But I have yet to say exactly what the problem here is. It’s this: The viral mugshot has the potential effect of further glorifying criminals, a problem you can’t say America doesn’t have. It clearly shows that human beings are no more evolved than any other animal, approving of the worst among us based on looks alone. Worse, women are now acting like men in a situation where they had the opportunity to take the high road instead of behaving in just the way they have criticized for years.

I am not saying it is wrong or criminal to look at a picture, and not knowing anything about the person, pass judgment on their attractiveness. I’m not even saying it’s wrong or criminal to look at a picture of a criminal who is physically attractive and say they’re physically attractive. But I will say it is not only wrong to look at a picture of a criminal who is physically attractive and not only say the criminal is physically attractive but is MORE attractive precisely because they are a criminal, but that such behavior is downright fucked up. Keep in mind we’re not dealing with a criminal who was incarcerated or branded a criminal based on some noble fight against unjust laws or fight for human or civil rights. No, Jeremy Meeks was a gangbanger. It may be the case that since being incarcerated for grand theft auto that Meeks is a reformed man, but then how does a reformed man wind up getting caught up in a sting operation to get guns off the streets? Just asking.

Meeks is not a person a civil society should be lifting up. Sure, I suppose this means we are not a civil society or that the collective vision of American society is or wants to be something else. But if this is how criminals are going to be treated, as celebrities, then don’t be surprised when the next school shooting occurs. (Interestingly, celebrities that act like criminals i.e. Justin Bieber, Linsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Chris Brown, etc. are all the more popular for their antics.) All of this is certainly not evolved behavior if we’re going to hold the word ‘evolved’ to its popular usage.

I’m baffled most by the role women have played in the mugshot going viral. Evolutionary

psychologist have long hypothesized that women adore risk-taking behavior in men – this is why they go for the bad boy, supposedly – but if this were true, why isn’t a picture of Marine Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, a soldier who threw himself on a grenade to save another man, going viral? Oh, that’s right, his face became a little disfigured in the process. That in mind, women have long been embittered by men objectifying women. Only, given the opportunity, they’re going to do the same goddamn thing? Or worse? Apparently, a commenter on one news agency’s website asked, “Is this the picture of a rapist? If so, please send him to Chile, Santiago.” Women had the opportunity to take the high road here. They took the low road. Women, if you can’t think of a reason why men rule the world now, you never will.

All the attention heaped upon Meeks once again places a spotlight on just how misguided America’s values are. We pay models, athletes, and CEO’s far beyond their worth while the people who do actual work and even sacrifice themselves for others are denigrated. Is humanity’s existential angst so great or self-esteem so low that people will pay any price to be distracted from it? Arguably so. But is there a fix? Yes; extinction. If that answer seems harsh, well, what else should be expected for a species that doesn’t bother to ask if it deserves its place in the world even though it can? Surely, humans think they are the only ones who CAN ask if they deserve their place in the world. You guessed it; I’m not of the opinion that arrogance is an evolved trait.

Don't You Think (Like This)

People be crazy. I submit as evidence the following video in which a person I used to be friends with, before he became a little too nuts even for me, speculates wildly about the origins of homo sapiens. He’s a nice guy who certainly means well, but he is one of those types of people who absolutely refuses to hear arguments against the things he wants to believe. He usually presents us with typical “I’m right and you’re wrong” mentality although he astonishly refrains from doing that in this video rambling, instead choosing to engage in the laziest kind of thinking one could possibly participate in. I encourage you to watch the video above, with an open mind of course, then read my rebuttal. 

1)     You simply have to love it whenever he says, “If you really think about it…” because when he says at 2:40 that the conventional thought for centuries was such that life on Earth was the only life in the universe, he’s really saying that such was the conventional though among Western European countries for the past few centuries, though I guess he thinks such a distinction is a given and that’s why he doesn’t qualify his statement. He also seems to imply that such conventional wisdom is the product of a deliberate deception [you can also draw this conclusion from his other videos] without thinking of a reason why people might assume life on Earth is the only life in the universe – namely, because that’s what the evidence so far indicates.

2)     He says at 3:25 that humans are the only animal that creates clothing, weapons, and transportation to meet some need. That’s a simply false assertion. There are plenty of examples of other animals who use weapons and tools to fight and accomplish tasks. Monkeys have been observed using weapons while monkeys, crows, dolphins, and even octopi have been observed using tools to perform tasks such as opening nut shells or crustaceans. Now, I can’t name any examples of animals building transportation off the top of my head, but even a deer would need a boat to cross an ocean, thus refuting his assertion that “a deer doesn’t need a [vehicle] to get anywhere.” Some sea animals, however, are smart enough to use currents to their advantage, helping them migrate faster than they would otherwise. So, it’s not like animals never have a need or never utilize transportation methods. While we have to grant that the tool use by other animals is rudimentary by comparison to human beings, all that means is that we’re very good at tool making. That’s it.

3)     At 4:10 he talks about the disadvantage a person dropped off in the woods would be if not allowed to cloth themselves without thinking about the disadvantage a polar bear would be at if dropped off near the equator or the disadvantage a tropical bird would be at if dropped off in the Arctic. He seems to believe that the mal-adaptation of humans to some environments means that we cannot be of this planet. Simply lazy thinking. We are certainly not the only species on the planet that needs protection from the elements; most land mammals do not sleep out in the open and instead opt for caves or dens to protect themselves from predators and inclement weather. Geez, birds live in caves and build nests, too, while snails seek the protection of shells which btw they don’t grow themselves. So, I don’t know how he’s coming up with this stuff.

4)     At 5:30 he makes it explicit that because human being are not adapted to some environments that we may not be from Earth and he draws this conclusion without considering the human mind as an adaptation. Sure, unaided, I could not survive without clothing near the Arctic like I could near the Equator, but to reiterate, human beings have been very good at tool making which has allowed us to conquer extreme environments. The ability to make advanced tools is not evidence that we are not native to Earth.

5)     At 6:30 he says that when you break down religion into its most basic element, they all worship a god or god. True most of the time, but hardly an unequivocal statement. But he goes on to say that most of these gods came from the stars, a statement that once again is plainly false.

6)     At 8:45 he asks if we are really supposed to be meat-eaters if we don’t have the teeth and jaw muscles necessary to bring down a wild animal. Again, he completely ignores the evolutionary process and the fact that not all meat-eater have long fangs. Seriously, are we supposed to consider him a thinker if he doesn’t possess the reasoning process necessary to draw believable conclusions?

7)     At 9:54 he asks why no other animal appears to think like we do. Uh, I think it’s safe to assume that if fish could think at all like a human being, they’d be wondering why there are animals above the water. Would the fish think we are gods and that we created them? I’m confident that few animals think like another animal much different than themselves. And this guy, well, he’s a different breed altogether.

8)     He concludes by saying we should think about this with an open mind, meaning, he wants you to speculate as wildly as he does as long as you don’t accept conventional  wisdom on the matter. Okay then, how about he thinks about my points with an open mind. Do you think he will? Do you think he’ll even consider the question I pose to him: What does it matter if we are indeed from another planet? Doesn’t our current situation and where we are headed as a species matter more? Granted, we look towards our origins assuming it will give us direction, but the fact is that doing so has not given us any clue on that account. So, who cares where we came from? I do not consider it a relevant question.