Twenty first century intelligence has strayed a long way from Weischler’s ( of WAIS intelligence tests) original definition
“the global capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his (or her) environment.“
Weischler was specifically interested in “non-intellective factors” that could not easily be computed. However this ideal has long been abandoned, only Verbal Comprehension remains. Verbal Comprehension tests the student’s ability to tell their similes apart from their metaphors and their analogies, not always easy, even for the brightest sparks.
No computer has yet passed a full and proper Turing test, where a computer passes themselves off as human in front of a panel of (human) judges, but they are progressing fast. Not least, if the number of spam robots trying to get me to tell them about my car accidents and injuries is anything to go by. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a way of teaching more rational thinking, that enables people to think more rationally about themselves, the world and their life. Computerised Cognitive therapy has been around for twenty years and is all but as good as a live therapist. Furthermore, given the progress demonstrated by Siri, Google Assist and Alexa and it is evident that the robots are catching up fast.
Nonetheless despite this apparent progress, computer or Artificial “Intelligence” works in a very different way from their human counterparts. Kasparov and Fisher play chess very differently from a computer, even though both base their skillset around being able to compute large numbers of moves ahead. Human Chess World Champions have judgement which enables them to abandon certain fruitless lines of thought without working through them all. In addition, human players have a creativity that makes for a more interesting game, for example, they may lead their opponent into a cunning trap. Computers play chess in a predictable manner, always calculating the best odds associated with a particular move. In the long run, this makes them boring to watch, much like the modern ultra-formulaic Box Set TV series swamping the small screens . It is the unpredictable twists and turns of real life that keep humans interested.
Surprisingly, lists of the people with the world’s highest IQs rarely show exceptional people (apart from Rowan Atkinson IQ 179). They are largely (80%) Caucasian Males. Einstein’s IQ has been estimated to have been around 160; high, but not uncommonly so. And as IQ tests weren’t around when he was young, we can never be sure.
However well a computer plays chess, Jeopardy, or completes an IQ test, all computers do it in the same way: by calculating all the possible outcomes, weighting the outcomes according to their likelihood of success and calculating those outcomes which have the best chance of success. They can even learn how to weight their own answers depending on the desired outcome.
Over time, IQ tests have changed, to become more logical and less dependent on local knowledge. The evidence suggests that they measure “fluid intelligence”, which is largely a measure of the efficiency of the brain, as opposed to “crystalline intelligence” which depends on local circumstances and experience. “Fluid intelligence” links to genomics, the MRI structure of the brain, its efficiency and IQ tests.
Computers make logical choices, and if IQ is a triumph of the logical brain, computers are rapidly overtaking even the “brightest” humans. Humans are by nature irrational, which has confounded economists for decades. It makes no logical sense that people are more frightened to lose a definite win, than take a risk to gain something of greater value. However my Grandmother used to say “A Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and if a computer thinks that’s irrational, then they should have led my Grandmother’s life.
In summary, machines are good at the things we are not so good at, complex arithmetic, faultless repetition and accurately working out impossibly long algorithms. Those things that can be calculated logically are done better by a grand calculating machine that is the computer.
Can they do anything they were not programmed to do? No, can they do things that no one intended them to do? probably! IQ tests test the efficiency of the human mind, that is the extent to which it resembles a computer. Given how useful computers are, it is not surprising that minds that most resembled computers were extremely useful. However, we now have calculating machines to do the grunt work formerly done by high IQ scientists. The human brain is far more than an amateur calculating machine, it is the key to survival that has lasted millennia. It is not surprising that brain efficiency is as heritable, as any other physical characteristic. But it is not the ability to do calculus that has brought us this far, the brain is much, much more than that and in a debate about genetics and IQ, IQ is far from the be all and end all of survival.
Humans have been around for 2 million years, computers for less than a hundred and now as a “computer- assisted” species, we are heading rapidly towards a metaphorical cliff edge of climate change and ecological destruction. There may be lessons here. Perhaps humans are illogical, superstitious and inefficient for good reasons. Whether or not your iPad could have guided Apollo 13 safely back to earth is irrelevant, because it would never have done something as irrational as send astronauts to the moon in the first place.