Intelligence Advancement

What are some likely potentials for intelligence to advance in the future?

It seems likely that the function of human intelligence has has been influenced by the environment of humanity throughout the past. The demand of the environment would cause different variations of human intelligence to be more effective than others, depending on the stage of development of human society and technology. I categorized 2 types of human intelligence, based on their function, and further explained the differences in a post from 2 days ago; General vs Memory Intelligence. I also hypothesized which of these functions would have been more prevalent, based on effectivity, relative to 3 categorized stages of human history, in my last post; Intelligence Development. There seems to be 2 major aspects which would likely affect which type of intelligence is more effective for the environment; 1) Demand of independent learning from lifestyle tasks, 2) Total variety of factors and concepts. Considering how human intelligence has developed in the past, how is intelligence likely to advance from this point on?

This will likely be even less accurate hypothesizing than my regular posts, since the general future is very difficult to predict. But, I can make some best guesses, based on the current stage of society and technology. Perhaps the potential future of humanity can be categorized into 2 likely scenarios of outcome, being either a significant world disaster, or continuation of advancement of society and technology. 

A world disaster could play out in many possible scenarios, such as climate change, extreme disease outbreak, a 3rd world war, or a super volcano or asteroid, etc. Assuming that in whichever case of a significant disaster, some humans, infrastructure, and technology survives, but 95%+ is destroyed, this would leave the remaining humans in an environment different than ever before. It could be comparable to the past, when there were far less people, but there could be the difference of information and technology, sustained from what we’ve built up to this point. 

Considering the 2 aspects of environment that affect which type of intelligence is more suitable, there would be a much higher demand for independent learning and adaptation, than there is now. This would seem to prioritize general intelligence (GI), similarly to the Agriculture Age (in the past), and much more than GI is currently prioritized by a typical human environment. But, there could still be a lot of information retained from before the disaster. This available information about factors and concepts in life, would allow memory intelligence (MI) to still have a relevant advantage for surviving in the environment. There would be less priority for MI than currently, but still more than in the agriculture age, since they didn’t have sufficient information to be utilized and memorized. GI would likely still be of more advantage than MI, since after a disaster, factors would be so different than before, demanding people to independently adapt.

In the 2nd potential scenario of the continuation of advancement of society and technology, the outcome of environment which is relevant to intelligence would have a few likely possibilities, based on technology. Since technology is advancing so quickly at this time, and has such a significant effect on human lifestyle, it would likely be the most significant influence. On 1 hand, with humans continuing to advance scientific understanding and sharing that information on a global scale, this would have an effect of MI’s applicable effectivity, progressing. Individuals would continue to specialize in 1 area of task, and have significant aid of technology for any given task, reducing the requirement for GI, with fewer varying circumstances for anyone in particular. Additionally, with information being shared more effectively, everyone would learn mainly through communication from others, rather than problem solving on their own (which is the 2nd component of GI; “carrying concepts”). 

On the other hand, if all work and job tasks are accomplished through production and computer control, people would be opened up to an expanse of freedom. With the change of most daily time, being free for someone to choose their own interests, this may slightly increase the applicability of GI, as each person could change their circumstances more often, subjecting them to scenarios of new combinations of factors. But with extensive information available, MI would likely still hold priority, since any new circumstances chosen to be pursued out of interest, would still mostly be learned through communication (rather than independently carrying concepts).

With the continuation of humanity, the environment is likely to change drastically, whether a world disaster occurs or not. A world disaster may cause an increase of GI, compared to now, but still perhaps less than the agriculture age, as long as information persists. Whereas continued advancement of humanity, seems likely to continue to cause MI to be more prevalent. As unpredictable as the future is, the changing environment will likely have a relevant impact on; Intelligence Advancement.