Syn

Of course intelligence is an invented term. It's no different than other invented terms, words, and languages. It all evolved up to this point and is evolving as time goes on. Not all things "evolve," but there are many things, like intelligence, which do, at least, I would hope that they do. So, intelligence is something which has the potential to evolve. I don't understand the relation. Of course the mechanisms exists. Just ask Bob Gray. You CAN train yourself to increase your memory capacity and recall. This has been proven, as have other characteristics of intelligences. I would say that memory is one part of intelligence. If you know what I mean. But I no longer think so. It plays its part. however, I would think that an intelligent mind would still be intelligent without memory. This may sound wrong, but, to me, intelligence is an ability which does not rely on memory to be intelligent. True. How is "critical thinking" related to intelligence? (Do tell) Heh. Why not? If the level of smartness equals the level of intelligence, then, I would doubt it, keeping in mind, the definition of intelligence. Perhaps. Huh? (Confused) I believe that it CAN help make (help increase) people more intelligent. Is that all? I'm not sure I understand. Umm... OK. Whatever THAT means. (Again, confused) Cadavers. These are used. It is legal. I don't understand what you mean. How so? I would suspect that it is in the interest of humanity - as a whole - to be as intelligent as possible. I've heard a little about it. PS: Interesting post, Genecks!

All the above tips, and so on, have their value but I was hoping for a response that would be a little more in-depth and to the point. For instance, if one wants to become a professional athlete, the advice: "go jogging everyday," would be good advice, though, it will not "create" a professional athlete. It's a simple building block which is pretty much useless on its own, not to mention, well known. To achieve the said goal, one needs to do and know A LOT more. My goal is to search for this type of knowledge and then to incorporate it into my lifestyle (joggling being something I already do). Only those who have gone the distance, know. That's why professional athletes have coaches and are up to date with the latest pertinent research. Anyway, I was hoping someone on a science forum would have access to such knowledge and have something new to say. "Smart drugs" may work, but these "artificial enhancements" are temporary, for one. It is like using steriods, I suppose. It's not really an answer, plus, once one gets unhooked, the results wilt. I agree that intelligence is something complex, but it needs to be broken down in order to be understood. Intelligence is knowing, in a way, but I tend to think of it in different terms. Almost anyone can know, but not everyone can use that knowhow in useful and unique ways (intelligent ways). It's like, you can know what you need to do to benchpress 400lbs (almost everyone is aware of the physical motion involved), but when it comes to it, you may not be able to unless you're a seasoned power-lifter. The ability to lift that weight is the intelligence which my thread refers to. To get there, you need something besides common knowledge. This much I know. Many people have natural abilities which go beyond those who were, for lack of a better word, less fortunate, but this doesn't really matter because what you may not have, can be and commonly is, grown. One more thing. If I wanted to lift heavy weights (back to the powerlifting example). I would get a trainer and/or read books that teach special techniques. Nutrition, meditation, supplements, sleep, advanced methods, etc. Many, many things, and all these things, as a whole, would get me that much closer to achieving my goal, say, of benchpressing 400lbs. For some reason, I haven't been able to find much when it comes to learning about "what can be done to become much smarter than one already is." I feel like someone who has been stuck lifting 200lbs without improvement for quite some time. By the way, is my thread appropriate for this forum? If not, please feel free to move it to a more appropriate location. Thank you.

To me, the question, can anyone become smarter, is like asking, can anyone increase their lung capacity. Unless you're a professional runner, and even then, this can be debated, you aren't close to realizing your potential. I believe that every human brain has a potential, and also, a set limit to which they can no longer improve, but this limit is completely unknown to most of us. Many people would say, there is no limit to the human mind, that it is like time and never reaching it's limit, but in this case, I would strongly disagree because time does have a limit (obviously). It's limited to it's parts which keep going forward. It doesn't increase it's potential and it doesn't decrease it. It stays the same. Always constant. This brings me to another point, and that is, many people believe that the IQ (a measure of intelligence) is never changing, like time, and it is largely hereditary and determined at birth (whatever that means). This is almost like saying, a tree's height is determined at birth. This clearly isn't the case, though it can be argued both ways, however, if a young tree doesn't receive enough water and nourishment, then it's growth will be forever stunted. Meaning, it won't live up to its genetic potential, or you might say, it's genetic potential would be altered due to a lack of specific nutrition. There is an equally opposite perspective, and that is, if the tree was given special growth boosting nutrients then it's hereditary potential would be unnaturally (?) heightened and forever increased. It wouldn't just realize it's potential, it would go beyond it. To me, intelligence, in whatever way you care to define it - IQ being a decent measure of it - can be increased and improved upon. This is what I'm interested in, hence, this thread. But first, in order to improve something, perhaps, it would be wise to understand what it is that one wants to improve. What is intelligence. Specifically? One might view the opposite of intelligence as being ignorance (I have heard this one many times over). This is simply false. Ignorance is what we describe as being the absence of knowledge. If this were the case, then intelligence would be the possession of knowledge. Even though "it" may help one to become more intelligent, knowledge is nothing without intelligence. Without at least some intelligence, knowledge would be useless information which would not be distinguishable from anything else. Now let's go back. The opposite of intelligence is un-intelligence, or in other words, stupidity. Knowledge, if you remember, can help someone to become more intelligent if there is already some intelligence there. If there is only stupidity, which is highly unlikely, then knowledge, being neutral, will breed more stupidity. Huh. Intelligence is made up of many parts. That much is clear. These parts can be improved. As this is done, the improvement of intelligence, as a whole, can be achieved. IQ tries to measure these parts. Even though it isn't a complete measure, it is one of value. As there are different degrees to stupidity, there too, are different degrees to intelligence. As stupidity decreases, intelligence gets its chance. In other words, stupidity creates an inability and hampers the growth of intelligence. In this regard, one can conclude, that to begin to improvement of intelligence, one must eliminate that which stunts its growth or increase that which eliminates stupidity. Anyway, my goal, here, is to figure out a way to increase intelligence, and therefore, increase IQ. There must be a relationship between the two. Any ideas? Has anyone figured this out? I suspect that some people have made this endeavor into a science. Do share. PS - I believe that there is nothing of more value than to increase intelligence and decrease stupidity.