It's obvious to me that there is a maximum level of capability theoretically attainable by each person. Just a few reasons:
1. I assume that some things cannot be learned; I am talking about savant-type talents. If these are functional advantages (obviously so), they may properly fit in to an assessment of intelligence. No matter how limitless we assume our malleable intelligence areas to be, this would represent one type of limit.
2. We are time-limited. No matter how efficient and otherwise perfect teaching methods may become, unless and until we solve the problem of infinitely prolonging intellectual vigor, there is a practical limit of how much information can be transmitted and absorbed by a person.
3. We are physically limited. Unless and until we can store an infinite amount of information in our brains, even an immortal person taught by perfect methods for an indefinite time would hit a limit on retained knowledge, which is one important basis of intelligence.
4. It is easy to conceive of theoretical intelligence far beyond the capabilities of even our most brilliant minds to date-- and so far beyond that it is pointless to debate whether such intelligence is attainable within our species, at least without evolution. One way to conceive of this would be to posit someone for whom everything is instantly laid bare: perhaps someone who instantly perceives truths which have so far required extensive life's work of the John von Neumanns et al. among us. That is, even the von Neumanns would simply be in a different class, plodding by comparison. It would not be a stretch to think that such a mind could reach greater heights, and due to the obvious difference in classes of intelligence, I don't see a reason for faith that such heights would be attainable by mere learning, at least for members of the human species as it exists today. Another way would be to simply directly posit an intelligence which can tackle problems untacklable by our greatest geniuses.
5. For intelligence to be malleable, it must be shaped by the environment. It seems more likely than not that reaching heights unattainable by the von Neumanns, by an average baby, would have to be done as a result of carefully orchestrated stimuli, rather than by chance occurrence. But now there arises a boot-strapping problem: we have to have super minds that are able to comprehend how to stimulate minds to infinite heights; something would have to know how to stimulate a mind to reach a never-before-reached level, and obviously one not reachable under their own steam by the "level fives" of today.
If these theoretical sorts of intelligence are considered to lie outside the scope of argument, as ridiculously unattainable, then limits exist too. They're inescapable. Though the limits of potential might not be practically reachable in many ways and for many reasons, and may not even be knowable, they must exist.
Last edited by Iucounu; 07/25/10 08:46 AM.
