Les 
Humans spend their early lives looking forward. Excited by possibility. Everything is new. The really early years (two to maybe seventeen-ish) can produce thoughts so new they can be overwhelming. First time riding a bike. learning to swim. Losing a pet. A first kiss. All the while our brains are recording and responding. Flooding our bodies with chemicals to help us cope. At night our dreams will awe or tear us apart.
Some can’t remember. Some can’t forget.
There is a point you hit in your life when things shift. You wake one day and you only have a hint as to the world around you. You have to squint a lot. It is impossible to know what getting older is like until you do. Some don’t care for it much and some are ok with it. Your health might start to fail and that is something new you could do without. We continue to collect information but it’s not the same for most. Your brain becomes an attic stuffed with accumulations and if we measure, or try to measure you with some hokey scale, you would appear to be quite wealthy. But it was the wonder that made intelligence astonishing. Young people love attics. They can make you appreciate what you have. They can shame the dust.
Artificial intelligence is exactly that. A synthetic approximation.
I saw a piece on media about a young boy, maybe 8 or 9 years old. His dream was to become a drag queen. The story included this young person with make-up and sequins. The stark difference in height as he romped down the walkway made it seem almost circus like. A mini adaptation of the things going on around him as adults clapped and cheered. I don’t want to give anyone the incorrect idea, I’m not saying it’s wrong and I’m not saying it is right. It’s just I know humans and I know there are impure spirits in that room. I only bring it up because it started me down a path of thought that was interesting about humans and our potential.
I like to use artificial intelligence as a societal reference point. Let us understand that in scope, artificial intelligence is only as smart as the smartest human being. It can recollect data far faster than any human but that is just a performance vector. If we were to measure artificial intelligence, depending on the scale used, it would be off the charts in some areas but maybe not score at all in others.
Artificial intellect might only ever be capable of taking inventory. Just a calculator waiting for an interested finger.
I couldn’t help but to turn myself back to measure people now using the same filter I had developed for synthesized intellect. I came to a conclusion that we are really not all that intelligent. We have advanced in many ways that can be calculated, but again our charting has to have many experiments for us to truly understand our intellectual scope. For example: we might point to a television set or an automobile and exclaim the massive amount of evolution that it took to get where we are today to have such intricate mechanisms. But neither are important to our survival. They entertain. They make our lives easier. But out of our 300,000 plus year existence the first car didn’t appear until 1886. 139 years ago.
What if we say that because life was harder 140 years ago that is evidence that we were smarter then?
What if the automobile was invented 1000 years ago. What would the world look like now? How about only 10 years ago? Try to measure that.
Everything can be measured. An example of the flexible nature of data is human population. Some say there are too many of us. Overpopulation is rampant. Over the years statistics are given showing the world on its knees as resources are stripped at an alarming rate. It’s quite harrowing to hear. A younger mind can’t quite grasp how that could be flexible at all. But factually, and it can be figured mathematically with reasonable ease, every human on earth right now can be moved to Texas and still have ample leg room. Our climate is changing and indeed some areas will no doubt suffer more than others. But some areas will also thrive. I’m not saying it’s wrong and I’m not saying it is right. It’s just I know humans and I know there are impure spirits in this world.
What you see all around you everyday is the best we can be right now. Not much has really changed at all in 300,000 years. We try to shape the world into dreams that awe or tear us apart. We try to shape our young people into something they can’t even comprehend because their mind hasn’t chemically taught it to cope just yet. We tend to learn when we are young that attention is fun, but it’s not until later in life do we realize attention can be dangerous. If I was God I would try to fix that.
We measure to justify, not to learn?
Maybe the secret is all intelligence is artificial?
What does a higher intelligence look like? It’s harder to imagine because we will answer with confirmation bias. I don’t think we can answer that. You should still try.
Modern Cannibal.
P.S.
Bound
Verb: walk or run with leaping strides.
Noun: A territorial limit. A limiting value. Tied.
Adjective: destined or likely to have a specified experience.
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