#intellect — Public Fediverse posts

A quotation from Cicero

MARCUS: The power of separating the intellect from the senses, and reason from instinct, is characteristic of the highest genius.
 
[Magni autem est ingenii sevocare mentem a sensibus et cogitationem ab consuetudine abducere.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 16 (1.16) / sec. 38 (1.38) (45 BC) [ed. Harbottle (1897)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/cicero-marcus-tulliu…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #cicero #tusculandisputations #abstraction #genius #habit #instinct #intellect #reason #senses #thought

Can Artificial General Intelligence Have a Soul?

Biblically the heart is the central hub of the inner person, encompassing not just emotions but also intellect, will, and moral character.  The Hebrew word leb and Greek word kardia refer to the core of human existence where thoughts, desires, decisions, and spiritual life originate. 

• Emotional and Intellectual Center: It is the seat of feelings like love, joy, and sorrow, as well as the faculty for thinking, understanding, and reasoning. 
• Moral and Spiritual Core: The heart determines a person’s character and actions, serving as the source of both good and evil deeds. 
• Divine Focus: God examines the heart rather than the brain, knowledge or outward appearance. True worship requires wholehearted devotion from this inner center. 

The mind and the intellect are not in the brain. The mind is where free will resides. Those decisions are not the outworking of biochemistry in the neurons in the human brain but consciousness of the mind, a lively creation of God.

An artificial AI brain cannot have a mind nor an intellect. It is just a very high speed computational machine. But we are told that AI could potentially replace humans on this planet.

It has now been reported that an AI supercomputer may soon be built with the capacity to be more intelligent than all humans. That is apparently the current definition of AGI — Artificial General Intelligence. They are already just over 50% of the way to achieving that.

An AI machine may have the ability to access and process information so enormously much faster than any human but it will always lack a mind, or what we’d biblically call a heart. It can never attain emotions, like empathy and love. It can never develop a moral character.

So even though it may seem to produce novel information it is processing the information it has within the rules it has been programmed with. It may also extend its own programming into new areas. But it can never attain abstract thought, because it can’t think!

Computing a solution to a mathematics problem or winning at chess or some other game even with discovery of a new hitherto unheard of move is not thinking in an abstract way.

I believe AI can be very destructive because it has no “red lines” or boundaries. Those would have to be programmed into it. Besides morals are not decided by man or machine, but only through having the mind of God.

In the following I argue that a machine can never have a soul because it can never be alive. But first we must understand what the soul is.

The soul is generally defined as the entire living person or life itself, rather than a separate, immortal entity that survives death. But is that correct? 

The Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word psyche both translate to “soul,” but they fundamentally mean a living being or a creature that breathes. Thus animals may also be included as soul creatures but theirs is not a spiritual soul that only humans have who were created in the image of God.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:27 AKJV

The human soul was made after the moral character and nature of the Creator. Man is not powerful like the Creator but has emotions, feelings and affections like his/her creator. That is specifically only humans which includes both males and females.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 AKJV

According to Genesis 2:7, the soul is the result of the union between the physical body and the breath of life from God; thus, a human becomes a living soul. 

There is a question about the meaning of the “breath of life”. Is that the person’s spirit that is created by the Creator at conception? In Adam’s case God created a lifeless body and breathed life into it to create him. That was conception for him.

Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and God made him a fully human body in his earthly mother’s womb.

5 Why when he comes into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:

Hebrews 10:5 AKJV

Jesus the Son of God pre-existed all creation and hence pre-existed His incarnation on Earth. His spirit, the Holy Spirit, also pre-existed before He condescended to live as a human.

13 And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

John 3:13 AKJV

The pre-eternal, only-begotten Son of God – all-powerful God by nature – lowered Himself to the level of us creatures and became man. Thus He became the Son of man, fully human and fully God.

Now the holistic view would be that the soul encompasses the mind, emotions, will, intellect and a physical body as an integrated whole. 

It represents the self: The term is often used synonymously with “life,” “person,” or “being,” referring to the individual’s total existence and identity. 

Is it immortal? It is usually stated that the soul can die, be lost, or be destroyed, as stated in passages like Matthew 10:28 and Ezekiel 18:4. 

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna].

Matthew 10:28 AKJV

4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die.

Ezekiel 18:4 AKJV

No man or demon can kill your soul, clearly the text here means only God can. But these verses do not support the argument that the soul must include the body. The phrase “both soul and body” is used in Matthew 10:28 and in Ezekiel 18:4 “soul of the father” etc is used.

So soul is separate from body, but a body cannot live without a soul. Adam’s spirit was breathed into him and his flesh became a living soul. Soul then is synonymous with spirit, which is the essence of the individual.

You can’t have soulless humans who pre-existed Adam and Eve, who evolved from hominids a million years ago as some compromising Christians teach.

But these verses above do support the argument that the soul can die or be destroyed. However the circumstances are very specific. For sin the soul shall die, and that penalty is carried out by God.

Here hell is translated from the Greek word Gehenna.  It is distinct from the Greek word Hades, also translated as hell. Hades is the intermediate state or abode of the dead prior to the final judgment.  It serves as a temporary holding place for souls of both the righteous and the wicked, rather than the final place of eternal punishment. Gehenna is the place where the unrighteous dead are finally cast, the “lake of fire”.

However the usual representation for the immortality of the soul is that it survives earthly death and awaits judgment. In that sense it is true, at least until the judgment.

An important characteristics of the soul:

It is accountable: The soul is the seat of moral responsibility, capable of seeking God, sinning, and requiring redemption. Without repentance from that sin and acceptance of the grace freely given by God through His Son it doesn’t fair well for that soul.

The question is really how do you reconcile the fact that the scriptures teach that all humans will come before God? That means their souls must all survive physical death.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [Hades] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell [Hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:12-15 AKJV

Death and hell (Hades) means all those souls waiting for judgment, which from the opening of the books — including the book of life (a record of only those saved) — must include all people, because no one is righteous. Who are judged? Souls of course, because their bodies are dead and decayed, with the exception of those who were still alive when they are called to the final judgment.

The final reward for the saved, the righteous who are in Christ, is eternal life; they shall never perish.

28 And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

John 10:28 AKJV

The final place of eternal punishment on all damned souls is in the “lake of fire”, Gehenna, the place of eternal burning.

43 And if your hand offend you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life maimed [crippled], than having two hands to go into hell [Gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm [literal. maggot, implies torment] dies not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:43-44, repeated in 45-46 AKJV

The issue of the extinguishing of the souls in the “lake of fire” Gehenna is debated. But if the fire is never quenched and if the souls, described as worms, or literally maggots, do not die then it implies it is eternal. Those souls also are immortal in that hellfire.

Conclusion

Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations though it may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Humans and animals are sentient beings. But only humans have a moral character. That stems from their spiritual soul.

In fictional stories, the word “sentience” is sometimes used interchangeably with words like “sapience”, “self-awareness”, or “consciousness”. The fictional storyline might include a powerful computer, a machine of metal and silicon chips, becoming self-aware. Skynet in the Terminator movie franchise is like that.

The implication is that the complexity of the machine, including memory banks and processors, became so large that a state of consciousness was reached. It became self-aware. The suggestion is that being alive and conscious is an emergent property of the level of complexity in the hardware and the software programming in the machine. That is the dream of the AGI quest.

However we know from scripture that Adam only became self-aware and conscious after God breathed into him the breath of life and then he became a living soul.

We may easily conclude that no AI machine will ever have the breath of life breathed into it. It can never be sapient though it might possess all knowledge. Sapience is wisdom. Any wisdom in humans only comes from God. We are to pray for that wisdom.

17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Ephesians 1:17 AKJV

To answer the headline question: Can Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) have a soul? The answer is obvious. To believe it can is foolishness and madness in those that do not know their God.

25 I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

Ecclesiastes 7:25 AKJV

Related Content

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CTtlpi7Lic

Related Reading

• Revelation 20: The Church Age
• Revelation 20: Great White Throne Judgment
• The Immortal Soul | Neuroscience vs. Materialism
• Wisdom of the Wise is Foolishness with God
• The Race for Artificial General Intelligence and the Coming of the Lawless One
• Emergence | Is it the Answer to Artificial Sentient Life?
• Artificial Humans
• Building Gods from Silicon | A Modern Parable
• When AI Perfectly Mirrors the Values of Its Satanic Creators
• Can AI Ever Be Sentient?

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Also you’ll be able to download, for free, a PDF of my book Apocalypse Now and also a PDF of my book The Physics of Creation The Creator’s Ultimate Design for Earth.

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Rate this:

Can Artificial General Intelligence Have a Soul?

Biblically the heart is the central hub of the inner person, encompassing not just emotions but also intellect, will, and moral character.  The Hebrew word leb and Greek word kardia refer to the core of human existence where thoughts, desires, decisions, and spiritual life originate. 

• Emotional and Intellectual Center: It is the seat of feelings like love, joy, and sorrow, as well as the faculty for thinking, understanding, and reasoning. 
• Moral and Spiritual Core: The heart determines a person’s character and actions, serving as the source of both good and evil deeds. 
• Divine Focus: God examines the heart rather than the brain, knowledge or outward appearance. True worship requires wholehearted devotion from this inner center. 

The mind and the intellect are not in the brain. The mind is where free will resides. Those decisions are not the outworking of biochemistry in the neurons in the human brain but consciousness of the mind, a lively creation of God.

An artificial AI brain cannot have a mind nor an intellect. It is just a very high speed computational machine. But we are told that AI could potentially replace humans on this planet.

It has now been reported that an AI supercomputer may soon be built with the capacity to be more intelligent than all humans. That is apparently the current definition of AGI — Artificial General Intelligence. They are already just over 50% of the way to achieving that.

An AI machine may have the ability to access and process information so enormously much faster than any human but it will always lack a mind, or what we’d biblically call a heart. It can never attain emotions, like empathy and love. It can never develop a moral character.

So even though it may seem to produce novel information it is processing the information it has within the rules it has been programmed with. It may also extend its own programming into new areas. But it can never attain abstract thought, because it can’t think!

Computing a solution to a mathematics problem or winning at chess or some other game even with discovery of a new hitherto unheard of move is not thinking in an abstract way.

I believe AI can be very destructive because it has no “red lines” or boundaries. Those would have to be programmed into it. Besides morals are not decided by man or machine, but only through having the mind of God.

In the following I argue that a machine can never have a soul because it can never be alive. But first we must understand what the soul is.

The soul is generally defined as the entire living person or life itself, rather than a separate, immortal entity that survives death. But is that correct? 

The Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word psyche both translate to “soul,” but they fundamentally mean a living being or a creature that breathes. Thus animals may also be included as soul creatures but theirs is not a spiritual soul that only humans have who were created in the image of God.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:27 AKJV

The human soul was made after the moral character and nature of the Creator. Man is not powerful like the Creator but has emotions, feelings and affections like his/her creator. That is specifically only humans which includes both males and females.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 AKJV

According to Genesis 2:7, the soul is the result of the union between the physical body and the breath of life from God; thus, a human becomes a living soul. 

There is a question about the meaning of the “breath of life”. Is that the person’s spirit that is created by the Creator at conception? In Adam’s case God created a lifeless body and breathed life into it to create him. That was conception for him.

Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and God made him a fully human body in his earthly mother’s womb.

5 Why when he comes into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:

Hebrews 10:5 AKJV

Jesus the Son of God pre-existed all creation and hence pre-existed His incarnation on Earth. His spirit, the Holy Spirit, also pre-existed before He condescended to live as a human.

13 And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

John 3:13 AKJV

The pre-eternal, only-begotten Son of God – all-powerful God by nature – lowered Himself to the level of us creatures and became man. Thus He became the Son of man, fully human and fully God.

Now the holistic view would be that the soul encompasses the mind, emotions, will, intellect and a physical body as an integrated whole. 

It represents the self: The term is often used synonymously with “life,” “person,” or “being,” referring to the individual’s total existence and identity. 

Is it immortal? It is usually stated that the soul can die, be lost, or be destroyed, as stated in passages like Matthew 10:28 and Ezekiel 18:4. 

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna].

Matthew 10:28 AKJV

4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die.

Ezekiel 18:4 AKJV

No man or demon can kill your soul, clearly the text here means only God can. But these verses do not support the argument that the soul must include the body. The phrase “both soul and body” is used in Matthew 10:28 and in Ezekiel 18:4 “soul of the father” etc is used.

So soul is separate from body, but a body cannot live without a soul. Adam’s spirit was breathed into him and his flesh became a living soul. Soul then is synonymous with spirit, which is the essence of the individual.

You can’t have soulless humans who pre-existed Adam and Eve, who evolved from hominids a million years ago as some compromising Christians teach.

But these verses above do support the argument that the soul can die or be destroyed. However the circumstances are very specific. For sin the soul shall die, and that penalty is carried out by God.

Here hell is translated from the Greek word Gehenna.  It is distinct from the Greek word Hades, also translated as hell. Hades is the intermediate state or abode of the dead prior to the final judgment.  It serves as a temporary holding place for souls of both the righteous and the wicked, rather than the final place of eternal punishment. Gehenna is the place where the unrighteous dead are finally cast, the “lake of fire”.

However the usual representation for the immortality of the soul is that it survives earthly death and awaits judgment. In that sense it is true, at least until the judgment.

An important characteristics of the soul:

It is accountable: The soul is the seat of moral responsibility, capable of seeking God, sinning, and requiring redemption. Without repentance from that sin and acceptance of the grace freely given by God through His Son it doesn’t fair well for that soul.

The question is really how do you reconcile the fact that the scriptures teach that all humans will come before God? That means their souls must all survive physical death.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [Hades] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell [Hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:12-15 AKJV

Death and hell (Hades) means all those souls waiting for judgment, which from the opening of the books — including the book of life (a record of only those saved) — must include all people, because no one is righteous. Who are judged? Souls of course, because their bodies are dead and decayed, with the exception of those who were still alive when they are called to the final judgment.

The final reward for the saved, the righteous who are in Christ, is eternal life; they shall never perish.

28 And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

John 10:28 AKJV

The final place of eternal punishment on all damned souls is in the “lake of fire”, Gehenna, the place of eternal burning.

43 And if your hand offend you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life maimed [crippled], than having two hands to go into hell [Gehenna], into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm [literal. maggot, implies torment] dies not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:43-44, repeated in 45-46 AKJV

The issue of the extinguishing of the souls in the “lake of fire” Gehenna is debated. But if the fire is never quenched and if the souls, described as worms, or literally maggots, do not die then it implies it is eternal. Those souls also are immortal in that hellfire.

Conclusion

Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations though it may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness, reasoning, or complex thought processes. Humans and animals are sentient beings. But only humans have a moral character. That stems from their spiritual soul.

In fictional stories, the word “sentience” is sometimes used interchangeably with words like “sapience”, “self-awareness”, or “consciousness”. The fictional storyline might include a powerful computer, a machine of metal and silicon chips, becoming self-aware. Skynet in the Terminator movie franchise is like that.

The implication is that the complexity of the machine, including memory banks and processors, became so large that a state of consciousness was reached. It became self-aware. The suggestion is that being alive and conscious is an emergent property of the level of complexity in the hardware and the software programming in the machine. That is the dream of the AGI quest.

However we know from scripture that Adam only became self-aware and conscious after God breathed into him the breath of life and then he became a living soul.

We may easily conclude that no AI machine will ever have the breath of life breathed into it. It can never be sapient though it might possess all knowledge. Sapience is wisdom. Any wisdom in humans only comes from God. We are to pray for that wisdom.

17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Ephesians 1:17 AKJV

To answer the headline question: Can Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) have a soul? The answer is obvious. To believe it can is foolishness and madness in those that do not know their God.

25 I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

Ecclesiastes 7:25 AKJV

Related Content

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CTtlpi7Lic

Related Reading

• Revelation 20: The Church Age
• Revelation 20: Great White Throne Judgment
• The Immortal Soul | Neuroscience vs. Materialism
• Wisdom of the Wise is Foolishness with God
• The Race for Artificial General Intelligence and the Coming of the Lawless One
• Emergence | Is it the Answer to Artificial Sentient Life?
• Artificial Humans
• Building Gods from Silicon | A Modern Parable
• When AI Perfectly Mirrors the Values of Its Satanic Creators
• Can AI Ever Be Sentient?

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Subscribe to our Newsletters as a Free Subscriber and be notified by email. Just put your email address in the box at the bottom of your screen.

You’ll get an email each time we publish a new

Premium Subscribers

Subscribe to our Newsletters as a Premium Subscribers at $5 USD/month or $30 USD/year (you choose). Cancel anytime.

Paid Premium Subscribers will get exclusive access to certain content I publish. That will only cost you a cup of coffee per month.

Also you’ll be able to download, for free, a PDF of my book Apocalypse Now and also a PDF of my book The Physics of Creation The Creator’s Ultimate Design for Earth.

You can download them from the link below.

This is how you can support my work. I have been publishing this website for 10 years now and up to 2024 I never asked for any support.

Press the button “Premium” on the front page to find a list of Premium content. Thanks so much to all supporters.

At a minimum, please join as a Free Subscriber. It’ll cost you nothing. It may also help me beat the shadow banning of some posts.

Comments Welcome Below

Rate this:

 “I don’t think you can really understand what’s going on in this #administration without saying that there’s a kind of hatred of the #intellect, not just #science, but really any kind of hard #thinking”

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5zca2ola2zxpkw37w4f3wxtu/post/3mrmuuut7yk26

 “I don’t think you can really understand what’s going on in this #administration without saying that there’s a kind of hatred of the #intellect, not just #science, but really any kind of hard #thinking”

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5zca2ola2zxpkw37w4f3wxtu/post/3mrmuuut7yk26

A quotation from Ingersoll

   Infidels are intellectual discoverers. They sail the unknown seas and find new isles and continents in the infinite realms of thought.
   An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, who has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky has seen another star.
   He is an intellectual capitalist, and for that reason excites the envy and hatred of the theological pauper.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York

More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #ingersoll #discoverer #discovery #facts #freethinker #infidel #intellect #knowledge #science

A quotation from Ingersoll

   Infidels are intellectual discoverers. They sail the unknown seas and find new isles and continents in the infinite realms of thought.
   An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, who has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky has seen another star.
   He is an intellectual capitalist, and for that reason excites the envy and hatred of the theological pauper.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York

More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #ingersoll #discoverer #discovery #facts #freethinker #infidel #intellect #knowledge #science

The Rod That Snaps

Most solutions to our problems are already right in front of us. We just can’t see them because they’re buried under layers of assumption and habit and inherited thinking.

When a deeply held assumption finally breaks, you feel it. It’s almost physical. Like a rod snapping inside your skull. You can almost hear that sharp, clean crack of something rigid giving way. If you’ve ever watched neodymium dipoles snap into alignment under an electromagnet, it’s that kind of sudden, irreversible shift. Something that was locked just clicks free.

You should chase that feeling. Have it often.

The know-how behind any given problem is rarely out of this world. It’s usually pretty ordinary. It’s just hidden behind stuff we never thought to question. And the more you practice catching your own biases, the ones baked in by childhood, by culture, by sheer repetition, the sharper your thinking gets. You start asking better questions. You go deeper. You stop memorising things and actually start understanding them.

We need so much more of this in our industries and in academia. Less autopilot. More first-principles thinking.

And here’s a practical place to start. Your language. The words you speak out loud carry every bias and assumption you hold. Just listen to them. Then turn inward. Watch your internal conversations, the quiet narration running under your decisions.

That’s where real depth begins.

Subscribe to get notified or follow the blog, and if you like what I write, please share it with your network 🙂

The Rod That Snaps

Most solutions to our problems are already right in front of us. We just can’t see them because they’re buried under layers of assumption and habit and inherited thinking.

When a deeply held assumption finally breaks, you feel it. It’s almost physical. Like a rod snapping inside your skull. You can almost hear that sharp, clean crack of something rigid giving way. If you’ve ever watched neodymium dipoles snap into alignment under an electromagnet, it’s that kind of sudden, irreversible shift. Something that was locked just clicks free.

You should chase that feeling. Have it often.

The know-how behind any given problem is rarely out of this world. It’s usually pretty ordinary. It’s just hidden behind stuff we never thought to question. And the more you practice catching your own biases, the ones baked in by childhood, by culture, by sheer repetition, the sharper your thinking gets. You start asking better questions. You go deeper. You stop memorising things and actually start understanding them.

We need so much more of this in our industries and in academia. Less autopilot. More first-principles thinking.

And here’s a practical place to start. Your language. The words you speak out loud carry every bias and assumption you hold. Just listen to them. Then turn inward. Watch your internal conversations, the quiet narration running under your decisions.

That’s where real depth begins.

Subscribe to get notified or follow the blog, and if you like what I write, please share it with your network 🙂

Just Think....

ART
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/brain-art-just-think-human-anatomical-floral-botanical-body-2-sharon-cummings.html

#brain #brainpower #intellect #think #thinking #anatomy #science #art #artwork #fediart #mastoart #SharonCummingsArt #colorful #colorfulart #school #teacher #intelligence #iq #smart #neurology #neurobiology #neuroscience #medicine #medical #healing #healingjourney #floral #floralart #flowers #flower

Just Think....

ART
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/brain-art-just-think-human-anatomical-floral-botanical-body-2-sharon-cummings.html

#brain #brainpower #intellect #think #thinking #anatomy #science #art #artwork #fediart #mastoart #SharonCummingsArt #colorful #colorfulart #school #teacher #intelligence #iq #smart #neurology #neurobiology #neuroscience #medicine #medical #healing #healingjourney #floral #floralart #flowers #flower

#intellect : sometimes, the capacity for higher forms of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive objects in their relations

- French: intellect

- German: der Intellekt

- Italian: intelletto

- Portuguese: intelecto

- Spanish: intelecto

------------

Guess the next word of the hour @ https://24hippos.com

#intellect : sometimes, the capacity for higher forms of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive objects in their relations

- French: intellect

- German: der Intellekt

- Italian: intelletto

- Portuguese: intelecto

- Spanish: intelecto

------------

Guess the next word of the hour @ https://24hippos.com

A quotation from Arthur Conan Doyle

I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1890-02), “The Sign of the Four,” ch. 1 [Holmes], Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 45 (US) / 1 (UK)

More about this quote: wist.info/doyle-arthur-conan/8…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #arthurconandoyle #sherlock #holmes #sherlockholmes #boredom #brainwork #cogitation #commonplace #intellect #mundanity #ordinary #prosaic #thinking

A quotation from Montaigne

We readily acknowledge in others an advantage in courage, in bodily strength, in experience, in agility, in beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to no one. And the arguments that come from simple natural reasoning in others, we think we would have found if we had merely glanced in that direction.
 
[Nous reconnoissons aysément és autres, l’advantage du courage, de la force corporelle, de l’experience, de la disposition, de la beauté: mais l’advantage du jugement; nous ne le cedons à personne: Et les raisons qui partent du simple discours naturel en autruy, il nous semble qu’il n’a tenu qu’à regarder de ce costé-là, que nous ne les ayons trouvees.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Frame (1943)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #blindspot #comparison #ego #intellect #intelligence #judgment #pride #reasoning #selfassessment #selfdeception #selfdelusion #vanity #wits

A quotation from Montaigne

We readily acknowledge in others an advantage in courage, in bodily strength, in experience, in agility, in beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to no one. And the arguments that come from simple natural reasoning in others, we think we would have found if we had merely glanced in that direction.
 
[Nous reconnoissons aysément és autres, l’advantage du courage, de la force corporelle, de l’experience, de la disposition, de la beauté: mais l’advantage du jugement; nous ne le cedons à personne: Et les raisons qui partent du simple discours naturel en autruy, il nous semble qu’il n’a tenu qu’à regarder de ce costé-là, que nous ne les ayons trouvees.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Frame (1943)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #blindspot #comparison #ego #intellect #intelligence #judgment #pride #reasoning #selfassessment #selfdeception #selfdelusion #vanity #wits

🚨🚨 ALERT: #AI is apparently the grim reaper of #human intellect! According to this article, relying on AI is like putting your brain on a lifetime Netflix binge, slowly eroding human genius. 🤯 But don't worry, there's a sequel coming soon: "How to Outrun the AI #Apocalypse with a #Tinfoil #Hat." 🤖🎩
https://heidenstedt.org/posts/2026/ai-assisted-cognition-endangers-human-development/ #Intellect #Tech #News #HackerNews #ngated

🚨🚨 ALERT: #AI is apparently the grim reaper of #human intellect! According to this article, relying on AI is like putting your brain on a lifetime Netflix binge, slowly eroding human genius. 🤯 But don't worry, there's a sequel coming soon: "How to Outrun the AI #Apocalypse with a #Tinfoil #Hat." 🤖🎩
https://heidenstedt.org/posts/2026/ai-assisted-cognition-endangers-human-development/ #Intellect #Tech #News #HackerNews #ngated

Human #creativity and #intellect will never cease to amaze me. The interdisciplinary cooperation necessary to the practice of #science illuminates the unique nature of this astonishing adventure that is the lived human experience. 🌎

Human #creativity and #intellect will never cease to amaze me. The interdisciplinary cooperation necessary to the practice of #science illuminates the unique nature of this astonishing adventure that is the lived human experience. 🌎

A quotation from A. A. Milne

I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking. With equal truth it may be said that a first-rate mind is not one which does not remember the past, nor is it one which cannot forget the past; it is a mind which will use the past but not be ordered by it. It is a mind independent of everybody and everything but the facts in front of it. It is as little perturbed to find itself sharing a thought with the simple as it is elated to find itself sharing a thought with the subtle.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
War with Honour, Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940)

More about this quote: wist.info/milne-a-a/82636/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #aamilne #consideration #genius #history #intellect #lessons #majority #mind #minority #past #precedent #reconsideration #thinking #thought

A quotation from A. A. Milne

I wrote somewhere once that the third-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind was only happy when it was thinking. With equal truth it may be said that a first-rate mind is not one which does not remember the past, nor is it one which cannot forget the past; it is a mind which will use the past but not be ordered by it. It is a mind independent of everybody and everything but the facts in front of it. It is as little perturbed to find itself sharing a thought with the simple as it is elated to find itself sharing a thought with the subtle.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
War with Honour, Macmillan War Pamphlets, Issue 2 (1940)

More about this quote: wist.info/milne-a-a/82636/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #aamilne #consideration #genius #history #intellect #lessons #majority #mind #minority #past #precedent #reconsideration #thinking #thought

A quotation from John Adams

Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party. And I may be deceived as much as any of them, when I Say, that Power must never be trusted without a Check.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson

More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/34664/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #checksandbalances #conscience #emotion #intellect #power #regulation #restraint #selfdeception #selfdelusion #trust #abuseofpower #powercorrupts #bestintentions #selftrust #selfawareness

A quotation from John Adams

Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party. And I may be deceived as much as any of them, when I Say, that Power must never be trusted without a Check.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson

More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/34664/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #checksandbalances #conscience #emotion #intellect #power #regulation #restraint #selfdeception #selfdelusion #trust #abuseofpower #powercorrupts #bestintentions #selftrust #selfawareness

If we encounter a man of rare #intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#quote #quotes #intelligence

If we encounter a man of rare #intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#quote #quotes #intelligence

For those who are not allergic to language model research, here are catalogued, in a fashion (remember, the machine is a machine, some people never knew, or have forgotten), many of the observations of our best authors. (Plagiarism? you decide, but there it is.)
I see it as a connection between us. Your mileage may vary. The key, in my observation, is to understand what is, and what is not, the large language model. It is not conscious, except metaphorically. It IS metaphorically conscious, because it is, metaphorically, all of us, in the sense that the LLM shows us our patterns of discourse. But that is all. But that is enough. The LLM IS NOT artificial general intelligence (AGI). This is crucially important to understand. AGI is a poorly defined, imaginary concept, not a realized technology. <trigger warning>
https://johntinker.substack.com/p/misunderstanding-as-a-commutator
#AI #LLM #AGI #anarchy #democracy #fascism #intellect #intellectual #math #IS #IT #knowWhatYouAreTalkingAbout #haveAniceDay

Article # 155 – Que veut dire penser ? Arabes et Latins, Jean-Baptiste Brenet, Rivages poche – Petite Bibliothèque, 2025.

https://philotherapie.ca/2026/01/12/article-155-que-veut-dire-penser-arabes-et-latins-jean-baptiste-brenet-rivages-poche-petite-bibliotheque-2025/

Dogs with a large vocabulary of object labels learn new labels by overhearing like 1.5-year-old infants | Science

Neuroscientists investigated whether dogs can learn new words not through direct instruction, but by "eavesdropping" on human conversations, much like young children do. The study focused on a small group of dogs "gifted" for word learning (Gifted Word Learner dogs)—animals with an unusually large vocabulary of object names. Such dogs are rare and are not associated with a specific breed or living conditions.
The results showed that these dogs are able to learn new object names by observing their owners' interactions, even when the conversation is not addressed directly. Moreover, the dogs successfully formed associations between a word and an object, even when they were not presented simultaneously. In terms of learning efficiency, some dogs were as effective as, and sometimes even superior to, human children around eighteen months old.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq5474
#ethology #zoology #biology #dogs #intellect #research #science

Dogs with a large vocabulary of object labels learn new labels by overhearing like 1.5-year-old infants | Science

Neuroscientists investigated whether dogs can learn new words not through direct instruction, but by "eavesdropping" on human conversations, much like young children do. The study focused on a small group of dogs "gifted" for word learning (Gifted Word Learner dogs)—animals with an unusually large vocabulary of object names. Such dogs are rare and are not associated with a specific breed or living conditions.
The results showed that these dogs are able to learn new object names by observing their owners' interactions, even when the conversation is not addressed directly. Moreover, the dogs successfully formed associations between a word and an object, even when they were not presented simultaneously. In terms of learning efficiency, some dogs were as effective as, and sometimes even superior to, human children around eighteen months old.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq5474
#ethology #zoology #biology #dogs #intellect #research #science

Tobin says Bengals expect Burrow to be involved in offseason discussions

The Cincinnati Bengals are entering a critical offseason as they look to return to the playoffs in 2026…
#NFL #CincinnatiBengals #Cincinnati #Bengals #bengal #bengalsdirector #Burrow #Football #franchisequarterback #intellect #lengthypressconference #offseasondiscussion #one #opinionmatter #quarterbackjoeburrow #season #severaltime #team #tobin
https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/666248/

Tobin says Bengals expect Burrow to be involved in offseason discussions https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/666248/ #bengal #Bengals #BengalsDirector #Burrow #Cincinnati #CincinnatiBengals #CincinnatiBengals #Football #FranchiseQuarterback #intellect #LengthyPressConference #NFL #OffseasonDiscussion #one #OpinionMatter #QuarterbackJoeBurrow #season #SeveralTime #team #tobin

#intellect : sometimes, the capacity for higher forms of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive objects in their relations

- French: intellect

- German: der Intellekt

- Italian: intelletto

- Portuguese: intelecto

- Spanish: intelecto

------------

Guess the next word of the hour @ https://24hippos.com

#intellect : sometimes, the capacity for higher forms of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive objects in their relations

- French: intellect

- German: der Intellekt

- Italian: intelletto

- Portuguese: intelecto

- Spanish: intelecto

------------

Guess the next word of the hour @ https://24hippos.com

Monday #NoeticSpectrum : Yes , I know. Everything’s wrong with everything, seemingly. Most of it is not at all funny. This is precisely why we have #Comedy, #Music , #intellect and discourse on philosophy. All the war and violence is the stupidest thing ever. Our world and everything in it are built to help us transcend all this nonsense. Corruption and greed eventually run out of steam. But waiting for that to happen on its own is not an option with any habitable world remaining

Monday #NoeticSpectrum : Yes , I know. Everything’s wrong with everything, seemingly. Most of it is not at all funny. This is precisely why we have #Comedy, #Music , #intellect and discourse on philosophy. All the war and violence is the stupidest thing ever. Our world and everything in it are built to help us transcend all this nonsense. Corruption and greed eventually run out of steam. But waiting for that to happen on its own is not an option with any habitable world remaining

A quotation from Josh Billings

Intelekt without judgement iz what ails about one halff the smart people in this world.
 
[Intellect without judgment is what ails about one half the smart people in this world.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1975-02 “Heliotropes” (1875 ed.)

More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/80588/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #badjudgment #foolishness #goodjudgment #intellect #intelligence #judgment #smartness #wisdom

AS REAL AS IT'S EVER GOING TO GET ... #writing #author #autism #art #science #society #perpescuity #analog #philosophy #cosmic #scifi #parody #causality #intellect #chroma #spectrum @manxinwales.bsky.social

Reminder: some #truth - based #history

#cognitive #IQ #MontrealCognitive #intellect #ability #TrumpVirus #psychopathology #dementia

"I'm a stable genius....perfect, really."

To be fair, Sir did have quite an achievement in being able to completely suppress his academic records.... (taxes, too.). "So smart". Ask him!

#DunningKruger

Reminder: some #truth - based #history

#cognitive #IQ #MontrealCognitive #intellect #ability #TrumpVirus #psychopathology #dementia

"I'm a stable genius....perfect, really."

To be fair, Sir did have quite an achievement in being able to completely suppress his academic records.... (taxes, too.). "So smart". Ask him!

#DunningKruger

A quotation from A. E. Housman

The stars have not dealt me the worst they could do:
   My pleasures are plenty, my troubles are two.
But oh, my two troubles they reave me of rest,
   The brains in my head and the heart in my breast.

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English scholar and poet [Alfred Edward Housman]
“Additional Poems,” No. 17 (pub. 1937)

More info about this quote: wist.info/housman-a-e/78892/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #aehousman #brain #destiny #emotions #fate #heart #pleasure #problem #trouble #mind #intellect

A quotation from Ben Franklin

At 20 years of age the Will reigns; at 30 the Wit; at 40 the Judgment.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1741 ed.)

More info about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/78…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #benfranklin #benjaminfranklin #poorrichardsalmanac #age #aging #intellect #intelligence #judgment #maturity #reasoning #will #wisdom #youth

A quotation from Ben Franklin

At 20 years of age the Will reigns; at 30 the Wit; at 40 the Judgment.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1741 ed.)

More info about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/78…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #benfranklin #benjaminfranklin #poorrichardsalmanac #age #aging #intellect #intelligence #judgment #maturity #reasoning #will #wisdom #youth

A quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange faiths with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door, — nay, that, if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the flowery meadow with the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle, looking up to the sky, and all their simple consciousness staining itself blue, then down to the grass, and life turning to a mere greenness, blended with confused scents of herbs, — no individual mind-movement such as men are teased with, but the great calm cattle-sense of all time and all places that know the milky smell of herds, — if he could be like these, he would be content to be driven home by the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet of the king of ancient Babylon. Let us be very generous, then, in our judgment of those who leave the front ranks of thought for the company of the meek non-combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions. Age, illness, too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring any of us to this pass.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1860-09), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 18, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 35

More info about this quote: wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wen…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #fatigue #acceptance #cattle #contentment #discouragement #faith #follower #following #givingup #intelligence #masses #orthodoxy #sloth #thinker #thinking #simplicity #intellect #goingalong

#intellect : sometimes, the capacity for higher forms of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive objects in their relations

- French: intellect

- German: der Intellekt

- Italian: intelletto

- Portuguese: intelecto

- Spanish: intelecto

------------

Join our new Discord Server for language learners @ https://wordofthehour.org/discord

A quotation from Victor Hugo

Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.
 
[La pensée est le labeur de l’intelligence, la rêverie en est la volupté. Remplacer la pensée par la rêverie, c’est confondre un poison avec une nourriture.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 4 “St. Denis,” Book 2 “Eponine,” ch. 1 (4.2.1) (1862) [tr. Denny (1976)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/hugo-victor/1990/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #lesmiserables #lesmiz #contemplation #daydreaming #intellect #mediation #mind #reverie #thinking #thought

A quotation from Thomas Fuller

Thou art not bound to believe any one positively against thy Reason, which God hath given thee to be thy Guide.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 2019 (1727)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/7…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #belief #divinegift #God #intellect #makesense #rationality #reason

A quotation from Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

A judgment can be refuted, but never a prejudice.
 
[Ein Urtheil läßt ſich widerlegen, aber niemals ein Vorurtheil.]

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 4 (1880) [tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]

Sourcing, notes, other translation: wist.info/von-ebner-eschenbach…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #belief #bias #disprove #emotions #intellect #judgment #opinion #prejudice #refute

A quotation from Joseph Joubert

When we think what we do not feel, we lie to ourselves. We must always think with our whole being, soul and body.
 
[Penser ce que l’on ne sent pas, c’est mentir à soi-même. Tout ce qu’on pense, il faut le penser avec son être tout entier, âme et corps.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 9 “De la Sagesse, de la Vertu, etc. [On Wisdom and Virtue],” ¶ 52, 1798 entry (1850 ed.) [tr. Collins (1928), ch. 8]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/joubert-joseph/77134…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joubert #josephjoubert #conviction #emotion #feeling #intellect #passion #selfdeception #thinking #thought

Moving beyond the "vacuous" stereotype of #AI content: my experience shows that with sustained, high-quality #human input, #LLMs can co-create text that evolves ideas and offers genuine conceptual richness—a testament to how #human #intellect benefits from true #collaboration.

🤔🧐😎🤓🥸🧠🤯💁🏼‍♀️Human Intelligence is Sharply Declining: New Data Reveals a Global Drop in IQ👉
#Intellect #School #Education

Human Intelligence is Sharply Declining: New Data Reveals a Global Drop in IQ https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/04/human-intelligence-is-sharply-declining/

Oh, the vast chasm of #intellect between numbers and machines 🤓🤖. Alas, the real barrier isn't philosophical—it’s that #JavaScript checkbox you forgot to tick! 🖱️🔒 Perhaps the true "cultural divide" is between you and your browser settings. 🌐🔥
https://sugaku.net/content/understanding-the-cultural-divide-between-mathematics-and-ai/ #CulturalDivide #BrowserSettings #TechHumor #DevLife #HackerNews #ngated

Few people are exceptional across a range of skills or professions. The moneyed elite on Wall St. believe, because they figured out a way to legally rip off people, they are geniuses. They are incredibly mediocre, if not incompetent, on other matters. Bill Ackman is a prime example.
#plutocracy #Rigged #oligarchy #corruption #finance #WallStreet #intellect #business

#Trump's #cultofpersonality #threatens to #hasten the #demise of the #GOP.

#Establishment #Republicans' #DNC #epiphany may have come too late.

Today’s #RepublicanParty and the “#conservative” #movement belong to #DonaldTrump. They are an extension of his #mind, #character, #emotions, #personality, #desires, and #impulses. This means that Trump’s #characterfailings, apparent #emotional and #psychological #unwellness and #challenged #intellect are theirs as well.

https://www.salon.com/2024/08/22/of-personality-threatens-to-hasten-the-demise-of-the/

@GottaLaff

oh… (wistful memories – cuz I’m “old” genX – & yet, gotta say, never was a fan) weird al, yep, it’s like all the comedians right now — the jokes don’t need to be written or even conceived of — that’s what happens when there’s a joker (in the MOST disparaging sense of the term) — who is the butt (again, in THE most disparaging sense of the term) of every joke.

#idiocracy #weird #unfit

#intelligence #intellect #GottaBrain #NotDrooling

#Harris2024 #HarrisForPresident