An insightful article. If I might offer a small reframing from my perspective: intelligence is the ability to exploit cognitively represented differences to achieve adaptive goals.
Inanimate systems “handle” differences all the time. Cognition is required to represent and quantify difference; intelligence is required to use those differences toward goals.
That makes sense — I’d see that as a further constraint on the same idea. Updating which properties are tracked is itself a goal-directed, adaptive process.
Cognition represents differences along a current set of properties; intelligence is what allows that set to be revised over time in response to outcomes and goals.
Multiple factors (represented by different properties) affect the result of any action. We may discover that gradually (bridges were built long before we found out about resonance) and widen the set of relevant factors. Also we may discover novel properties by combining existing ones (consider reading the post about relations). Another post worth reading is about tea - Cup of tea. The central idea in all my posts is the same, but details and examples may be different. Also, novel ideas pop up sometimes, so I often repeat them in the following posts.
An insightful article. If I might offer a small reframing from my perspective: intelligence is the ability to exploit cognitively represented differences to achieve adaptive goals.
Inanimate systems “handle” differences all the time. Cognition is required to represent and quantify difference; intelligence is required to use those differences toward goals.
The core difference is not the ability to handle differences, but the ability to update the list of properties, in which differences are tracked.
That makes sense — I’d see that as a further constraint on the same idea. Updating which properties are tracked is itself a goal-directed, adaptive process.
Cognition represents differences along a current set of properties; intelligence is what allows that set to be revised over time in response to outcomes and goals.
Multiple factors (represented by different properties) affect the result of any action. We may discover that gradually (bridges were built long before we found out about resonance) and widen the set of relevant factors. Also we may discover novel properties by combining existing ones (consider reading the post about relations). Another post worth reading is about tea - Cup of tea. The central idea in all my posts is the same, but details and examples may be different. Also, novel ideas pop up sometimes, so I often repeat them in the following posts.