Multiple Intelligences - Artificial and Other Wise
What many call “artificial” intelligence is one of the key change agents in our now and future inquiry into evolving human intelligence. As storytellers, I would suggest there is nothing artificial about this intelligence because we are inventing it, just like we have created new tools and developed different types of intelligence as we have evolved over time.
Even if we are creating general artificial intelligence that once deployed can learn by itself, we are still setting something in motion like we would a child who will go on to become an adult. The question is ... what is included in its basic education? And how is this AI is going to be deployed and who will benefit? What we decide in the near future will have a profound effect on human life as we know it.
I first want to begin with the concept of multiple intelligences. When we ask the question who is initially training a GAI, the kinds of intelligence that are emphasized are one quality of its education that are important. For many years many considered intelligence as only being cognitive skills measured by IQ tests. Much of what we call our education system today still trains students in this way.
That began to change with the work of Howard Gardner included in his seminal book “Frames of Mind – The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The concept of multiple intelligences became further popularized by Daniel Goldman’s work in “emotional” intelligence and Cindy Wigglesworth’s work in “spiritual” intelligence. Noted philosopher Ken Wilber also included “lines” of multiple intelligence as an important element of his Integral Theory.
Which brings me back to artificial intelligence. Is machine intelligence just another tool operating in the world or is it a fundamental leap in the evolution of intelligence, human and otherwise? Below you will find short video clips from multiple intelligence researchers and AI thought leaders I am tracking. Each is exploring this vast inquiry in different ways, asking different questions. All point towards some aspect of what we need to consider in the now and future of the evolution of our intelligence. One of those questions is... have we as homo sapiens become a transitional species to whatever we are inventing next in enhanced humans and solitary AI beings. Is our role now to imbue these new forms of intelligence with the best of what we have learned and let them carry that intelligence into the future, much like the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans.
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Daniel Goldman - Emotional Intelligence
In this clip, Daniel gives a brief summary of his emotional intelligence work and what he has learned as organizations and individuals have worked with it. Daniel is an internationally known psychologist who lectures frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college campuses. As a science journalist Goleman reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times for many years. His 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year-and-a-half, with more than 5,000,000 copies in print worldwide in 40 languages, and has been a best seller in many countries
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Cindy Wigglesworth - Spiritual Intelligence
In this TED talk, Cindy lays out the qualities that she includes in her spiritual intelligence work. Cindy is a recognized expert in the field of Spiritual Intelligence. Inspired by the work of Dr. Daniel Goleman and Dr. Richard Boyatzis, Cindy has, with the help of PhDs in various fields, created and validated a skills-based SQ assessment (the SQ21™ ) and has field tested ways to help people build their own SQ.
Ken Wilber - Lines of Intelligence
In this clip, Ken Wilber talks about multiple lines of intelligence as a part of his inquiry into consciousness. Ken is a noted philosopher and best selling author. In this clip, Ken points out what is missing from our conversations about intelligence as Eastern spiritual yoga's integrate with Western psychology as a part of the now and future evolution of intelligence.
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Click on ARROWS to enlarge to full screen
Max Tegmark - Beneficial AI
In this TED talk, noted artificial intelligence researcher and author Max Tegmark presents a summary of what he thinks is important as we invent a new type of intelligence that is not human. Max is an MIT physics professor with more than two hundred technical papers and has featured in dozens of science documentaries. His work with the SDSS collaboration on galaxy clustering shared the first prize in Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year: 2003.”
David Chalmers - The Hard Problem
In this TED talk, David Challmers outlines the “hard problem” for artificial intelligence researchers; what is consciousness? David is a University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness. He is also Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University and co-director of the PhilPapers Foundation
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Click on ARROWS to enlarge to full screen
Ray Kurzweil - Transcendent Man
This film trailer for Transcendent Man, gives a brief summary of the complex and influential work of Ray Kurzweil. Ray is an American author, computer scientist, inventor and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements, and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.
To give you some idea about how intelligence evolves at scale, here is a 1977 film by Charles and Ray Eames called the "Powers of Ten." It traces Kosmic manifestation in a unique fashion. When you are watching, remember that each star you see has planets that revolve around it. These can include possible life. And also how similar the smallest quarks in our bodies, look a lot like the elements of the largest scale of creation. (Like us or more or less intelligent) All that we see in this film originated from one big bang moment.