Intelligence

   I hate it, absolutely hate it when someone shows off. Especially when they go like "Man, the guy's such an idiot. He only got an 89 in French and I'm getting a 90." Which brings one to a thought: what makes him so stupid and you so smart? My idea of intelligence is not that of the ideal. I believe that everyone has more or less the same amount of intelligence.


   Why? Because neurones are too precious for the brain to waste. So, does that mean that the person who is actually trying in the class and is barely passing and the person that couldn't care less and is getting the second highest mark in the class have the same amount of intelligence? Yes and no. While the former person might have an IQ of 82 and the latter one of 136, both of these individuals' intelligences are roughly the same, possibly with the latter a bit higher, but not by such a huge gap as shown by the Intelligence Quotient system. For the sake of making things easier, let's call the first person Bob and the second, Abigail. Now, you might be thinking that people like Abigail, were it not for their cockiness, have been blessed with a true gift from God. Or have they? See, in my opinion, everyone has around the same amount of neurones in their brain per said volume. Thus, making everyone roughly equal in thought calibre. So, how is it that Abigail can surpass practically everyone in the class without breaking a sweat while Bob has to study heavily to be able to get a mark in the low fifties? Putting work ethics and listening habits aside, it's all related to how their brain is set-up. While people like Abigail might be good in practically every subject, their neurones are scattered across their brain roughly equally, thus, they can pass any subject with ease. Yet, people like Bob can't pass any subject with ease, which means that one part of the brain (in this case, the linguistics part, the left temporal lobe) has a deficiency of neurones. If all humans have the same amount of neurones, where did Bob's go? Simple answer, somewhere else. So, while Bob may be terrible at French, he might be amazingly good at abstract art, to the point of which he could easily become the next Van Gogh. People with a high IQ might be good at almost everything and do very well in school, but people with a low IQ might excel at one or possibly a couple of subjects.


   With that established, let us step into the extreme. Let us step into the world of savants. More particularly, the world of so called "idiot savants." By definition, an idiot savant is "a person who is considered to be mentally handicapped but displays brilliance in a specific area." See here and here (watch all the parts, it's really good). People like Derek Paravicini are considered by most people to be extremely handicapped, or in today's words, "really retarded." People like Derek are so severely disabled that they can't distinguish left from right and can barely count to ten. Yet almost all of Derek's neurones are concentrated in one specific part of his brain. In this case, they're concentrated at the corpuses of Derek's brain, the part that is responsible for listening to, imagining and playing music. Since most of his neurones are concentrated there, Derek is a musical genius. So, although he may suffer with autism, have difficulty walking and not be able to do most of the things most humans are able to do, he is one of the best musicians in the world. His talents are simply extraordinary and are not readily seen in most, if not all human beings. And he's not alone.




   Perhaps people like Derek are truly the lucky ones. Even though they might not be able to do the things that most people can, they are, in fact, the best in one specific area of expertise. Which is, ultimately, what carries the human race forward. So, perhaps instead of paying so much attention to people with high IQs, we need to pay some attention to savants as well, so that we can find out what their special talent is, in order to let them flourish in this world and help humankind in a way that no one can.


   Yet people that have minds like that of Derek's are not in the best case scenario. Who is? Most people on Earth. Not everyone is good at everything and not everyone is good at only one thing. Most people are able to do many things but one thing especially well. Maybe the best case scenario is to have enough neurones in the brain scattered to be able to function properly without the need of other peoples (unlike savants), yet have a specialized part of the brain that is very rich in neurone density, so that people can excel in a specific area and increase the knowledge of the human race.


   In that case, what we need to do is find the one subject that we truly love in school and stick to it. Chances are, if one loves that subject more than the other ones, it is their best subject. After finding the desired subject, you need to put your heart and soul into it. Study it as if there is no other thing of utmost importance, because in truth, there isn't. You need to put on your blinders, as horses do, and not look around. Not be distracted by anything. Not take any negative criticism from anyone. Simply improve, improve and improve. To the point that once you have finished studying, you're among the top people in your field in the world. At which point, getting a job would be extremely easy for you and once you are in the work force, you would soon tire of the things done daily, for you already know all there is to know. Here, you would start to make discoveries and/or inventions, adding new knowledge to your field that has never been thought of prior to your arrival. If everyone does this, humanity will advance so much more rapidly, even more rapidly than this past century, and reach a point of such brilliance unthought of by anyone. Since everyone is so much more knowledgable, literate and mature due to the human-brought evolution of our race, people would stop bickering about irrelevant things. There would no longer be any wars, no longer any hatred, no longer any genocide. All would be well.


   And it starts with one person. Whoever says that this is impossible doesn't know the true caliber of our race. We can definitely perform such a task.


   After all, we are the most advanced being known. After all, we're all human.