Comment by JohnFen
3 years ago
> I would say that the alien is intelligent if it displays the ability to learn, reason, form abstractions, and solve problems across a wide range of domains.
I don't disagree with this. What I'm saying is that that definition, while reasonable and I agree, is one that we've just decided on for this conversation.
It isn't one that would be considered complete and correct in all discussions about intelligence.
> I don't think the implementation details matter.
I agree, for the definition of intelligence you just cited. But my point is that "intelligence" is not well-defined or understood. I'm genuinely surprised that people think this is a controversial stance -- I really thought it was well-understood.
We can settle on a definition for rhetorical purposes (and, I would argue, that's mandatory in order to have any solid discussion about intelligence), but any definition we agree on will leave out a lot of things that people consider part of "intelligence".
No, that's not a definition that we've just decided on for this conversation. It's a core part of what people are talking about when they talk about intelligence. Just because we can't precisely define it to capture everyone's intuitions and edge cases doesn't mean that there aren't core features to the concept that everybody agrees on. In other words, anyone who says that learning, reasoning, abstraction, and problem solving aren't a part of intelligence is objectively wrong.