07.+What+is+Intelligence+(February+2006) - Get a Free Blog

What is Intelligence? 4
That is, the man or woman who has read a lot of books and crammed a lot
of facts into their mind is called intelligent, or who has made some
extraordinary efforts to acquire a “skill” such as playing the piano
expertly or speaking a foreign language, which we see also in general
means this same accumulation of knowledge, together with some
mechanically learned, parrot fashion routines of dexterity of tongue or
fingers.
There are some people for example who can perform the solution of the
geometric toy/puzzle “Rubik’s Cube” in sixty seconds or less, but does
this mark them out as truly intelligent or is this something that any “idiot”
can do given enough time, motivation, information and practice?
(for those who don’t know, descriptions of Rubik’s cube are freely
available on the Internet or in encyclopaedias).
Of course the ability to solve how to do Rubik’s Cube is a different
proposition, rather than to find a ready-made solution and learn to carry it
out swiftly by extensive practice, and surely indicates a different kind of
intelligence.
And it is the latter kind of “skill” which we would describe as
“intelligent” rather than merely the ability to perform a sequence of
memorized procedures like a well trained parrot.
Equally therefore should we distinguish between the performance of an
“expert pianist” and the person who composed the music.
The person who expertly plays the piece of music is showing a sometimes
startling ability to memorise and carry out a complex physical task, a
physical skill.
But is it really so remarkable, when we consider the average concert
pianist after a preparation and training period of years and decades,
spends around seven hours or more a day practising the skills which they
display before us in just a brief few minutes?
Obviously none of us who are unwilling to commit ourselves to a
similar level of training, which at minimum is going to take months of
constant effort, and more likely years, can ever hope to equal his or her
skills, and naturally find dazzling such a highly trained display which is
the product of so much unseen tortuous concentrated effort, that it almost
defies belief, just as the performance of the person who gets into “the