Failure of Intellect
From our deliberations above, we can derive two important hypotheses about what we may call the Idea of Intellect. Like most of the ideas humanity has evolved and understood, this reality of Intellect is also shrouded in conflation and conundrum of ambiguity and dualism. Intellect and intelligence are interchangeably used to refer to human capacity to understand. Before we proceed, it is important that we understand this confusion and also do away with it.
There are two dimensions of understanding or what we may alternatively call knowing or knowledge. One aspect of knowledge is to understand what human endeavors have already understood and is there for anyone to know and use it effectively for his or her wellness. Somehow, intelligence is considered as the mental ability of a person to grasp and utilize the knowledge that is there for every person, in the form of already expressed pool of academic inventory. This knowledge is part of intuitive learning.
Second aspect of knowledge is to understand what has not yet been understood and is still un-deciphered by collective humanity. This also requires the idea of intelligence in the same meaning. There has to be a required level of mental ability to venture into both types of knowledge. This intelligence is part of the agenda of humanly designed academic routines to ensure that every young person evolves with this benchmark of intelligence to journey the roads of both types of knowledge. At this stage, we leave intelligence alone and begin the journey of pure Intellect.
As we mentioned at the start of this chapter, there are two broad hypotheses about the idea and reality of Intellect. From our above deliberation, we can now list them. The first hypothesis about intellect is that there are two types of intellect – one is primary-indispensable and another is optional. It is primary and indispensable for every human being to have the detailed knowledge of Self – one’s own body and brain and its structural-functional spectrum in all aspects of interactions with external milieus of society-cultures. It is also part of this primary intellect to accept that knowledge is ever-evolving and therefore learning is a life-long process, requiring constant updating of the knowledge inventory of a person. The academic structures therefore are required to design such ways to evolve the critical level of intelligence in all growing human child. The optional intellect however is to have interest and inclination in venturing into those areas of knowledge, where humanity has still to decipher lot many things. The academic structures however must also inculcate readiness in every human child so that any young man or woman could avail this option.
The second hypotheses about intellect is that it must always devise and design such structures and functions, which could not only check the innate propensities of intelligence to become depraved and criminalized, but also restore back the sanity and system, if ever depravity-criminality grows out of proportion. The intellect must know all processes of humans as well as the milieus; ensure its optimal and universal knowledge to all humans and also know and manage the entropies of the processes, which bring about depravity and criminality in human systems. These two hypotheses emanate out of the fact that collective Intellect of humanity is expected to be in optimal knowledge of all dimensionality of reality – manifest or hidden; and therefore in a position to perform its rightful role, duty and purpose of leading humanity towards its best life-living. In the light of these hypotheses, we need to analyze this probability, whether intellect has failed in performing its avowed role or not.
As we deliberated at the very start about the grassroots genesis and nature of speaking, to understand its true role and purpose; we also need to do the same with the idea of Intellect. Cultural insinuations and populist interpretations almost always add abstractions and mysticism to an idea and this result in the vitiation and depravity of its roles and purposes. To avoid that and have clarity over the idea and ideology of Intellect, we first attempt to unravel its genesis and true nature.
Essentially, it is safe hypothesis to accept that Intellect is exclusively human evolution of intelligence, which an exclusively higher and more complex human brain engenders. Intelligence is organismic and very much universal in all multi-cellular living beings with basic functions of neural processing of information. Human brain is a marvel of billions of years of evolution, since 3.5 billion years, when first single cell living organism happened, with basic intelligence of intentionality.
This uniqueness of human brain required the organismic intelligence of intentionality to evolve to a higher and more specific functionality. This dialectically evolved and more species-specific intelligence is Intellect. Intelligence is generic availability; Intellect is specific accrual. This in turn suggests, every normal-healthy human child is born with this generic intelligence potential. However, as Intellect is evolved with maturity of human brain, it is specific to a person’s personal enterprise to make its accretion a possibility. Therefore, it is safe hypothesis to say, a person with Intelligence is only animalistic; until it has the endowment of human element of Intellect.
From this hypothesis, it is a natural progression that we understand this uniqueness of human brain, to decipher what truly are the nature, role and purpose of Intellect, in its personal as well as collective dimensions and manifestations. It is a huge exercise, but we shall do it as briefly as possible just to arrive at this uniqueness. This uniqueness of human brain can be explained in many ways. This uniqueness has many dimensions. However, here, we shall talk about the broad aspects of this uniqueness, especially in terms of its influence on understanding the idea of Intellect.
Human brain has a very unique relationship with what it creates. Brain is the only human organ, which creates something, which is hugely mystical and marvelously multidimensional. This creation is popularly summarized as Behavior, which we can say is the external expression of Intentionality. This idea of behavior is also very complex and subject to conflation, dualism and conundrum. Like speaking, as we deliberated at the very start; behavior is also understood by majority of humanity, through its functional and intangible manifestations in the external landscape of society-culture. Intrinsically however, behavior has deeper and embedded structural and tangible basis, which is always ignored. The difference is very much like recipes, which people perceive as food and ATP, which cells actually use as final energy.
Human brain creates behavior and this behavior, stands in constant and complex interactions with external milieus of society-culture-polity-economy-faith, which in turn alters and conditions behavior. The altered and interactionally evolved behavior then alters and conditions the brain states. Many scientists believe, this idea, which they call Plasticity, is the most unique feature of brain, especially human brain. Plasticity means changes in brain structures and functions, subject to changes in external milieus. Plasticity is in fact the most powerful tool to optimize survival wellness in all higher organisms, especially humans. This however, is not the ultimate uniqueness of human brain.
This uniqueness of human brain, which we are talking about, is something, modern scientists are just beginning to unravel and it is still in infant stage. This idea of uniqueness comes from the modern breakthroughs in the field of theoretical physics, molecular biology and artificial intelligence. This uniqueness is about the Complexity of Information, the human brain states have evolved to handle and process. This aspect of complexities of human brain’s information processing capabilities is hugely tough to understand as it relates to a very non-intuitive domain of understanding of quantum mechanics and multidimensionality of string theory. This understanding is very nascent and still evolving. What we can understand in simple terms is that human brain’s uniqueness emanates out of its Complexities at two different levels – first, complexities of the human brain’s structural make up, as it evolved over millions of years and secondly the complexities of functional information plexuses it processes in constant interactions with a unique human milieu of hugely complex society-culture-polity-faith. Together, they make human brain a marvel of the universe.
Never before, in human history of civilization and culture, humanity could understand its own brain, as it can do now. This very understanding of human brain; its structural complexities and functional multidimensionality has brought to the fore, this very critical realization that not only functionally but also structurally, there is huge difference between what is popularly accepted as Intelligence and what humanity has so far perceived and accepted the Intellect as. This very realization and its very scientific basis is a huge accrual to modern humanity. It has deeper and lateral manifestations in how humanity accepts reality and how it goes about its life-living agenda in society-culture-polity-economy-faith landscapes.
This very hypothesis now clearly defines what humanity must accept Intellect as. In the light of modern, contemporary, objective and measurable scientific knowledge of reality; especially human reality of its body-brain; it is now possible to have a singular and very appropriate meaning, role and purpose of human Intellect.
Now we can probably say with reasonable definitiveness as what is Intellect, whether larger humanity is aligned and equipped with it or not and whether this intellect has failed humanity or not.
In contemporary scientific idealism; Intellect is a landscape of higher awareness, which is made possible because of a specific neural process of information processing in the brain states. This higher awareness, which is engendered out of the massive complexities, functional multidimensionality and processing scale-speed of brain states; is the pinnacle of Consciousness and Cognition. This awareness, also called Higher Consciousness, is capable of understanding the universe of Causalities, which are continuously happening and evolving within internal milieu of body as well as the external milieus of society-culture. Intellect is, therefore, the Emergent Specificity of intelligent processes of brain states as they culminate and evolve out of the complex information processing of neural plexuses within brain universe.
In simple and assimilative term – Intellect is the state of highly aware personhood; enabling him or her to witness and internalize complex and multidimensional processes, which create Causalities of Intentionality. This awareness catapults individuality to witness the spectacle of all processes within body as well as in external milieus. This intellectual awareness stands the Self or sense of personal agency of a man or woman to feel, sense out, recognize, organize and manage different dimensions of realities in life-living landscapes. This Intellect aligns a person’s awareness to the very critical idea-idealism of Holism. This intellect then facilitates the potential of a person to become an objective and compassionate Judge of righteousness and appropriateness of all roles, purposes and intentionality.
This Intellect has a collective intentionality. Equal and symmetrical Media of Higher Consciousnesses automatically aligns and assimilates with each other. Individual Intellect assimilates into the holism of collective Intellect. This collective Intellect of humanity has its role and purpose charted out. The collective intellect understands that the very basic and singular condition for evolution, prevalence and sustenance of Intellect in every human being is the sanity-system-symmetry-synchrony-harmony-equitability of the external milieus of society-culture-polity-economy-faith. It is a scientific fact that Intellect is an emergence out of the complexities of human brain. But; this emergence is like a two-edged sword. If this emergence happens in sanity-system-symmetry-synchrony-harmony-equitability of the external milieus of society-culture-polity-economy-faith, it breeds the awareness of love, compassion, fraternity and harmony. If this emergence happens in vitiated, depraved and disharmonious milieus; it breeds criminality, depravity and cacophony. Therefore, collective Intellect has this singular role and purpose to ensure brilliance, harmony and sanity of external milieus. This ensures emergence and spread of true and right intellect in every human being.
Higher Consciousness is where evolved and settled human elements of thoughtfulness and rationality present themselves as frontline Intentionality. The higher consciousness is not entrenched and wired intentionality; it is an emergent and transient intentionality. This expression of emergent intentionality requires very peaceful, poised and harmonious milieus. It is important to understand that the wired intentionality shall automatically happen, if it is not consciously replaced by emergent intentionality of higher consciousness.
If emergent intentionality of higher consciousness is not happening, because of the vitiated, unsettled, depraved and criminalized milieus; the wired, animalistic, subconscious, entrenched intentionality shall automatically happen. This wired subconscious intentionality is designed by evolution to represent the extremities of survival question. Therefore, in vitiated milieus, where a person’s consciousness is unsettled, he or she have larger propensities of depraved-criminalized behavior. It has to be accepted that this wired animalistic intentionality is designed to express the singular intentionality of survival and therefore, it does not actualize and is not conditioned to accept the very idea of criminality and depravity. For subconscious entrenched intentionality, singular validity and righteousness is survival and whatever is deemed depraved, criminal or inappropriate is essentially societal-cultural idea. Therefore, subconscious intentionality is doesn’t even accept wrong or right. Wired animalistic intentionality just behaves and acts to optimize survival.
No doubt; knowledge and educational background of a person helps but persistent pressure of bad milieus create high stress in minds and science has known that when in extreme stress; the human brain shuts the rational brain states of cortex layers and falls back to the limbic system intentionality. Modern science has now knows how stress wreaks havoc on the homeostasis of human body-brain system. We also know that in contemporary human milieus, majority of people are in high stress levels, which they are not even aware of. Very innately, most people are highly reactionary and prone to extremities of behavior-actions as, their limbic system, handling emotional spectrum, dominates their intentionality. Therefore, it is a safe hypothesis to accept that the singular role and purpose of intellect is first to ensure compassionate and settled milieus and secondly, educate every human being about the reality of human body-brain mechanisms and process, so they live out their lives as higher consciousness individuals.
Now, in the light of the hypothesis about what we can accept true and right Intellect as; we all can evaluate whether this Intellect has failed or succeeded in contemporary human world? Has the collective Intellect been successful in ensuring sanity-system of milieus or has failed big time? It is for you to decide. What we have deliberated is only a hypothesis. You are the best judge of all realities that you are faced with.
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