musingsonwomenshealth.com

Reflections on 40 years as a doctor in Women's Health

The liability of intelligence


As I age, what I once thought I knew about intelligence has evolved, partially because knowledge has itself changed over time, of course, but also because what we value, what we regard as appropriate, unfolds differently as society develops. It’s why we seem to espouse new ethical standards, find new ways of interpreting History, and even adopt new ways of understanding morality. What we considered important in one era, we may deride as barbaric in another.

I suppose all these revisions will never end, but they do make it difficult to process past events, past ways of understanding the world without wondering why they’ve changed. Is continuing to view things in a different light the purpose of intelligence?

Surely our ability to sort through data and establish its worth hasn’t changed though, has it? Surely intelligence should be measured by something more than how fast our brains can process information, and having done so, how much of it should be usefully altered. Or is intelligence the ability to revise what we consider important and to adapt it appropriately as the world around us evolves? Perhaps.

There are undoubtedly many ways of looking at intelligence, foremost I suspect is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills -a rather utilitarian approach. There are other things that hint at intelligence as well, though: establishing an appreciation that how the world actually is for us depends on our relationships with other people.

I was drawn to an essay[i] quoting the writings of Michael Tomasello, a professor of neuroscience and psychology who specializes in social learning. He points out that ‘at around nine months of age, children engage in joint attentional scenes. The child’s mother may point to some flowers and say, “Pretty flowers!” What is significant is not merely that the mother has uttered words, but that the child is being invited to engage in joint attention with the mother. The flowers are being made present to the child as an object of shared collective and aesthetic attention.’

And further, ‘In the age of social media, the rapid rise of extreme ideologies and conspiracy theories has underscored the ineffectiveness of focusing on empirical truth alone to combat extremism. Many people remain enthralled by charged and incendiary speech or ideologies. This fact ought to remind us that before we can communicate a concept, we must establish a scene of joint attention.’ That is also an interesting way of looking at intelligence.

I was reminded of Tomasello’s work the other day while I waited in a rather slow-moving line in the Food Court where I often meet friends for coffee. There was the usual mixture of harried mothers in the line tending to their crying babies while trying to keep track of their constantly wandering children, and construction guys just wanting a burger and coffee before they had to get back to work.

“Don’t know how they do it, Josh,” one large and muscular man in dusty overalls and heavy looking work boots, said to his similarly clad friend. “I mean I’m hungry too, and don’t like waiting in a long slow line…” He shook his head irritably.

“ How they do what Dan?” His friend had a mop of curly auburn hair, only partially tamed by a bright red toque which clung to the back of his head on a rather jaunty angle.

“Deal with all those kids while waiting in line…”

Josh rolled his eyes. “What choice do they have? It’s either this, or remain prisoners with the same kids at home.”

“Yah, but…”

Josh nudged his friend. “Just watch what that woman ahead of us does, eh?”

They both stared at the interaction of the woman and her frenzied little boy ahead of them in the line. There was a lot of noise from the nearby tables, but I could just make out what the mother and child were saying.

“I’m hungry,” the little tow-headed boy kept wailing. “When are we gonna eat…?”

The woman managed a smile and suggested they play a game.

The little boy stopped yelling for a moment, then began to scream again. “I don’t want to play a game, mommy. I just wanna eat!”

The mother pretended to think about it for a moment. “I know, let’s play ‘I spy with my little eye’. You always like that game, dear.”

The little boy shook his head, defiantly. “You said we were going to get something to eat here!”

The woman roll her eyes for a second and then bent down so she was closer to her son’s level. “That’s why I want to play a special ‘I spy’.

The little boy stopped whining and looked at her. “What…?”

The woman pointed to a display counter where, behind a plexiglass cover, a variety of doughnuts, cookies, and muffins were on display. I’ll go first, okay…?” The boy nodded, a little dubiously. “I spy with my little eye, something that is white with a hole in it.”

The line moved up a little and the boy pointed at an iced doughnut.”

“That’s easy; it’s the doughnut, mommy!” He stared at the display for a moment. “My turn! My turn… I spy with my little eye… A chunky thing with raisins or something on it.”

The mother pretended she was having trouble guessing. “Uhmm, that’s a hard one Jimmy… maybe the cookie?” Meanwhile they were almost at the front of the line -some of the people ahead of them were in a group and ordered several coffees and assorted cookies on the same bill.

Jimmy smiled. “Pretty good guess, mommy, but I fooled you. It was one of the bun-things on the next row.” He smiled proudly at his obvious cleverness.

 His mother smiled in response and shrugged. “You’re pretty clever young man… and look we’re at the front of the line, sweetheart. What do you want to order?”

I could see Dan was smiling at how clever the mother was.

Josh, however, just rolled his eyes at him. “You just have to draw the kid’s attention to something and share the experience with them. Makes waiting easier…” He smiled and punched him lightly on the shoulder; they were now at the front of the line. “I do it with you all the time…”

There’s always something to be learned in a Food Court, I think. Maybe Tomasello did his research in one of them…

[i] https://theconversation.com/what-is-intelligence-for-millennia-western-literature-has-suggested-it-may-be-a-liability-205913

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