Fascinating discussion on a topic I've spent time on since at least being told in a college class for would be teachers that IQ test really only manage to test how well you do IQ tests.

My simplistic definition of intelligence: the ability to learn a new task. One of my examples was pointing out that I had a cat whose relative ability to catch small rodents w/o tools was genius level compared to my (& her Ferdinand the Bull personality son's) ability to do the same.

I'm a philosophical (transcendental?) idealist. My conclusion is that the four (five, two?) fundamental forces described in physics arise from a more fundamental “field of energy” that manifests, when expressed through sufficiently complex structures, the characteristics we associate with (in humans) consciousness. An extension of Assembly Theory if you like.

The purpose being to answer the question (who, what, where) am I?

And yeah, orcas are clearly more intelligent than humans but lacking thumbs (& a dry environment that is more conducive to not dissolving everything in it) they are far less preoccupied with manipulating their environment than with comprehending it (a task for which their sonar & 0.5Hz -120kHz auditory range is far better suited).

Thank you for this post.