ON INTELLIGENCE AND EVOLUTION (August 27, 2019)
An eleven-year-old Iranian girl from the United Kingdom is in the news lately on account of her intelligence quotient that surpasses both Einstein and Hawking’s. Her IQ hovers at one-hundred and sixty-two points, whereas that of the two scientists of world renown were two points below hers. Wow! According to the news, there is high hope that she will study mathematics and end up outsmarting all the physicists to date. It is beyond the imagination of journalists behind the news that human intelligence would have to be at least ten times above that of this adolescent prodigy to make any difference in this world of ours. What did Einstein and Hawking do for this world, anyhow? For the time being, only artificial intelligence has a chance of reaching such heights. Sadly, next to nothing will be gained by AI on a planet swarming with dimwitted humans. At their best, all they can do is thwart all improvements to their own wellbeing. The only hope remains evolution, but intelligence quotients above one-thousand points cannot be but a pipedream for the next ten-million years or so. In short, my heart goes to the Iranian girl. Her IQ score will be a stone around her neck for the rest of her life. Impressive though it surely is all by itself, it is utterly useless at this day and age.