What is Intelligence?

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

-Albert Einstein.

In order to determine the nature of the state which we refer to as "intelligence", we must first look at a hypothetical. Suppose you are an alien anthropologist visiting another planet, hoping to discreetly discern the dominant native species intelligence. What would you look at first? Their science? Perhaps it's mediocre in comparison to your own inter-planetary technology, not to mention their main source of fuel is slowly poisoning their planet and destroying it's ecosystems. Perhaps mathematics, although they're stuck on problems your species solves generations ago. Their art is intriguing, but reflective of a culture you do not understand, so to you it looks rather meaningless. Frustrated, you return from this voyage and tell your boss that this civilization may not be intelligent at all, and may simply lack what it takes to advance any further culturally or technologically. You may write in your report that these dim-witted aliens have no concept of foresight, since the fuel they burn for energy and transport is not only unsustainable, but destructive. Worst of all, you may condemn these creatures as little more than insects, incapable of escaping their animalistic desires and tribal warfare for the greater good.

Perhaps it's obvious at this point, but this scenario I've just mentioned is the most likely conclusion an alien would reach upon observing our own species, right here on Earth. "Why do the fools use carbon-based fuels, when their star is so powerful and their planet teeming with alternative methods for energy extraction?", This alien might ask, though obviously in its own (probably superior), language. It's understandable to feel insulted by this conclusion. To us, our feats seem major, a testament to human ingenuity and technology. We've put men on the moon, robots on Mars, and even thousands of satellites in orbit around our world, which to us, seems larger than life. But an alien would see the vast collection of debris circling our planet, hindering future space missions and endangering those already in progress. They'd see our frail means of communication, reliant on satellites which, due to the collection of debris, could be struck at any moment, crippling our entire civilization almost instantly. Looking on our surface, they would see our monuments, sure, but it would baffle them: the aliens wouldn't know why we pinned one of our own to a cross, nor why we build statues of him across the world. True, they'd soon find out about religion, but in doing so would unearth centuries of brutal war and death. They wouldn't see the NATO alliance from space, but rather the line of lights which divides the feuding Pakistan and India, a mark of juvenile tribal wars and a lack of higher cognition, to them.

A grim picture, indeed. So how then do we define our own intelligence? If we define it by what we haven't done, then we are sorely lacking any major cognitive function. But if we instead look at what we have done... then it soon becomes obvious we have so much more to do, which leads to a reflection on what we haven't done. However the key difference between these two methods of analysis is that one starts with the positive, what we have done, and moves into the hopeful, what we haven't, whereas the other simply looks at the more negative aspects of what we haven't done. The alien, in viewing our society from the present and in a short period of time, sees what we haven't yet accomplished when comparing its own culture to ours. But we must define our intelligence differently, and in learning from the faults of this alien, we can surmise that intelligence, as Einstein so aptly stated, is not the presence or manipulation of technology, but the creativity expressed by a species. Instead of looking at what we know about the universe, a wiser anthropologist would look at what we ask.

So it turns out we might be pretty smart after all, though clearly imperfect. Our art depicts our deepest, rawest nature. In our science, we are able to solve more and more complex problems with each passing year. And in our philosophy and psychology we ask the questions which drive at the heart of our existence, in an effort to wring any meaning out of our short lives. These are the markers of intelligence, displayed on this planet by just one species. Even the imperfections we display are just faults of a species still trying to find its place. Intelligence is not seen in what you already possess, but in what you seek to possess.