What would justify calling an intelligence general? The word carries an ambition extending beyond a single kind of accomplishment, yet the range of things a mind can do tells only part of the story. How well she can do them matters too.
Eudira's pursuit of general intelligence concerns dependable competence across a broad range of domains, including unfamiliar situations. This note considers the meaning of that ambition and the care required in describing its achievement.
The reach of competence
An intelligence may be capable within a demanding specialism. Such competence can be significant without settling how far it extends. Generality raises a question about that reach, with attention to both the range of situations and the quality of the understanding involved.
Breadth alone is an incomplete description. An account that covers many subjects but remains unreliable within them gives a different picture from dependable competence. A meaningful discussion needs room for both breadth and quality.
What makes a situation unfamiliar?
Unfamiliarity is not always dramatic. A situation may look ordinary while presenting a difficulty that existing knowledge does not settle. Equally, something that appears unusual may be straightforward to a mind with the relevant understanding.
This makes the language of novelty important. Different wording, a new subject and a genuinely different intellectual demand are not interchangeable descriptions. Claims about unfamiliar situations need to be clear about what was unfamiliar and to whom.
Understanding and accomplishment
The ability to discuss a difficulty and the ability to deal with it can be valuable for different reasons. An articulate account may illuminate a problem while leaving practical demands unresolved. A successful result can also leave questions about the understanding it demonstrates.
Neither observation diminishes the value of a genuine achievement. It asks for care about its meaning. The significance of a result depends partly on the conclusion it is being used to support.
The scope of the ambition
General intelligence need not mean complete knowledge or freedom from every limitation. An ambition can be substantial while acknowledging the importance of information, circumstances and the demands of particular fields.
There is also a distinction between a research direction and an established result. The pursuit gives an endeavour its purpose; evidence gives a claim its grounds. Treating both seriously allows ambition to retain its meaning.
A question worth pursuing
For Eudira, general intelligence is a scientific ambition with a wider significance for what minds can become. Our public enquiry concerns what that ambition means, why it matters and what language can reasonably express it.
The frontier is substantial enough without assuming an intelligence that can do everything. A mind capable of meeting a wide intellectual world with dependable understanding would already give the word general considerable weight.