Members intelligence

[white avenger]

I do not feel a person has any intelligence unless that person has the ability or has a PhD.

I will have to say that two of the most stupid people I ever knew were officers in the U S Navy, where a 4 year degree is a prerequisite to receive a commission, and undoubtedly the smartest man I ever knew, my father, never got beyond the 5th grade in a little country school, so I can't go along with your standard at all.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

"The last thing you want is for people to think your light's on but nobody's home."

Honestly, I don't give a toss what people think about me. 😅

 

[DeadlyDuo]

I think it's stupid to consider that the measure of a person's intelligence is dependent on the procurement of a fancy piece of paper.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

How annoying I am: my first thought here was is it the ”same gray t-shirt” or identical/similar gray t-shirts.

Lol, it is something that is remarked on often in language here that people will say things like ”hey, we’re wearing the same shirt”, when you really mean an identical/similar one (samma/likadan distinction). And that’s the level of nitpickiness I’m at because it’s been ingrained in me by my dad, nitpicker extraordinare. 😛

Basically, to satisfy me the author should’ve written something like ”why he only wears plain gray t-shirts”

I’m done nitpicking. Back to your regulary scheduled programming.

Are you sure, though?

A t-shirt is a mass produced item. Wouldn't you agree that such items have a sorta ethereal existence that connect each physical item to each other?

It is easier to make my point using an image as an example. If you and I both had a poster of Warhol's soup cans in our apartment, aren't we both looking at the same image? As material objects, the two posters are completely unrelated, but they are both representation of the same image.

An article of clothing is similarly an actualisation of an image/an idea/a design. Maybe the true referent to Zuckerberg's shirt is not the individual shirt that currently hangs on Zuckerberg's pasty body, but the non-existing shirt that all the shirts in his closet are representations of.

It is even clearer when people talk about brand logos. A logo can be represented on everything from a billboard or an article on clothing or in an advert on your computer screen. But when you talk about the logo, you are usually not talking about the actualisation of that logo. You're almost always talking about the ethereal logo that does not have a physical existence.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I could propose another test of intelligence that also requires money as much as brains. How many here are patent holders? My patent expired a while ago and it cost about $8000 for the company to get, just a bit less than one year of university. But like a Ph. D. where a lot of people who would be able to pass the course either can't ante up the money or don't want to be bothered, many people who could get a patent don't want to go through the drudgery of trying to market what they invented. And many of us had their fill of academia by the time we got our Bachelor's degree..

BTW one of the most important patents in spread-spectrum communication was co-authored by Hedwig MacDonald. Who would you know her as? Hedy Lamarr, the actress who was famous for having the first orgasm on screen and was one of the glamour girls of the golden age of Hollywood. Her patent forms the basis for modern technologies such as Bluetooth. Her patent was 2,292,387 and it proved that as well as the glamour girl looks, she had a keen engineering mind.

Gaining a patent requires a degree of creativity in addition to intelligence since patents are only granted for things that have never existed before. But I don't count myself a superior intellect because of being a patent holder - I just had an idea that the company decided to run with as far as getting a patent but they never used it. There are a lot of people in academia in both the arts and the sciences that remind me of Anya's comment to Cordelia:

Cordelia: But Harmony...
Anya: Oh, she follows me around. If that girl had an original thought, her head would explode.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

But seriously, what is intelligence? A mass of information in one's head that others deem worthy? Who judges what "intelligence" is? Is it the ability to problem solve quickly, or rattle off words that sound "smart"? Think about it.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

@DeadlyDuo That's rather profound, darling. 😜

 

[ILLYRIAN]

So DeadlyDuo, if I wear what my daughter wore at the university ceremony when she received her double honours degree for Neuroscience, you'd think I was intelligent? REALLY?

 

[Bluebird]

If we're going by normal standards of judging intelligence then I'm as dumb as a brick!

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Yeah naughty @Bluebird casting a bad reputation on a brick, poor bricks! What's this and genghiskhan too?

PS I thought the saying was, *as thick as two short planks*?

 

[white avenger]

But seriously, what is intelligence? A mass of information in one's head that others deem worthy? Who judges what "intelligence" is? Is it the ability to problem solve quickly, or rattle off words that sound "smart"? Think about it.

I think that intelligence si the ability to learn, rather than simply the amount of facts you have memorized. The late comedian, Jerry Clower, summed it up perfectly when he commented that a certain politician (never mind which Clinton it was) was "educated far beyond their intelligence." If education and intelligence were the same thing, no PhD would ever stick his finger in a light socket,

 

[thrasherpix]

When I first participated in online discussions with adults (early in my 17th year) I was self-conscious about being a high school dropout (though I was studying for the GED), and combined with that I was learning grammar and such from a Masters of English who said clear communication was even more important online I was careful with my words. To my amazement, I actually intimidated people with my vocabulary and somewhat old fashion grammar (the woman teaching me, also a professional book editor btw, got her degree no later than the early 1970s) so that some online assumed I was a professor! (It's also worth noting that about a year earlier I tested college level at everything but math, which I attributed from reading so much, fiction and nonfiction, including from books checked out from the adult section of the library.) So I toned it down.

I told my tutor that and she laughed really hard saying those who thought I was a professor probably didn't know any that well, at least not more than one. She shared so many stories that academicians, including of the hard sciences (she helped to edit their journals back in college and realized a lot of what they congratulated each other over was gobbledygook which meant nothing, but no one wanted to appear stupid by saying so, and the other editors told her not to worry about it), would not want to be shared. One of those was about a professor who the worst of anyone when it came to misspelling and grammar (though she was not used to online communication). And damn there are some real idiots with PhDs out there.

Point being that there is a wide gulf between education and intelligence in the form of common sense and being able to figure things out. Some can be good at one but really bad at the other. Money (and desire), and sometimes connections, matter much more than intelligence when it comes to getting a PhD.

 

[TriBel]

Money (and desire), and sometimes connections, matter much more than intelligence when it comes to getting a PhD.

My dad was a coal miner, my mother worked in the pottery industry and then in a supermarket. I'm the eldest of four children. I was a "gifted child". I went to grammar school but left at 16 because money was tight. I worked in a variety of jobs and didn't go to university until I was in my 30s. I was a single parent with three children so had to work part-time. Six years later I had a first class degree and a PhD. I've worked in academia ever since. I had no connections (I was the first member of my family to receive a post-compulsory education). It cost me nothing (I had a grant and full scholarship). My only investment was time and the proverbial blood, sweat and tears.

Most of what's been said in this thread is hearsay. Not everyone with a PhD is a genius and not everyone who is a genius has a PhD. That said, I don't know any genuine "idiots" with PhDs. The majority are normal people who live normal lives and have normal levels of common-sense. Oh...and there's these guys...: University of Manchester scientists win the Nobel Prize for Physics

I doubt they stick their fingers in light sockets.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Tribel, you wrote in your post that most of what has been said in this thread is heresay I take that to include your post? And what was the mention of the Nobel peace prize winners for.
You said you don't know any genuine idiots with a PhD, how do you classify what an idiot is and how do you classify how that person is a genuine one?
Who decides what the subject a PhD is?

 

[thrasherpix]

 

[November]

A doctor (GP) spoke to me casually the other day, he is so naive to life below his paygrade. I wouldn't accuse him of outright stupidity, but he had no idea of the realities of life outside of the city and his circle. I guess it is what has kept him happy enough to keep functioning. Keep looking and eventually you'll see nothing in the world makes sense. To survive is to choose a bit you believe in. I can understand now that it is so dangerous to continuously challenge beliefs over and over and over again, because generally a bright mind is right the first time and trying to show others is like hitting your head against a brick wall in an attempt to be fair- leading to brain damage. Especially when with others who can't communicate on a level deeper than words alone.

Online is not the place to seek intelligence. Kids now are trained to type well. I know a girl who put down a horse because it tripped at the walk once, and now she is a well respected member of the facebook horse community because through autism, she knows spelling and grammar better than most. Put her words into practice and she's just another kid who falls off at the trot. The net is no good for emotional intelligence, share an achievement or action and it is ridiculed and dismissed. What we do doesn't matter online, how we share it does. How we express ourselves is what we are judged on, and it is limited in a discussion forum space.

 

[SunnydaleGlitz]

I'm currently in a doctoral/ PhD program and am in the ABD stage (the 'all but dissertation' final stage) so I've finished the coursework and qualifying exams and I can attest to it being very hard work, but worthwhile, though it does require a lot of focus. We had to finish all coursework, assignments, qualifying exams and one oral defense within two years (most doctoral programs space this out within 3 or more years), alongside teaching and RA-ing work, and now I'm ABD. It was rigorous and exhausting at times. I was on a full scholarship but I didn't really have time to do anything but keep to the grind, now I'm working on my dissertation. I think it has more to do with resilience- when I finally get my degree I'll be glad to have earned it.

I don't think a PhD is a perfectly reliable or exclusive index to "intelligence" - it just indicates that you have an affinity for academia. There are tons of brilliant people with drive and focus who don't enjoy academia at all. There are tons of geniuses who are not academics. Besides, how do you really measure intelligence anyway?

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I doubt it. 1. Shippers, 2. 90s Teenagers, 3. Lesbians and fellow travelers, 4. People who enjoy a good fight sequence. Those are four groups well represented in Buffy fandom, then and now, whose intelligence is probably average, as compared to the general population. Heck, I remember a kid in High School who just watched it on mute just for S.M.G. You don't need a 140 IQ to enjoy pretty white people crying while they make out. Having said that, there is much for intelligent people to enjoy in Buffy, either the discussions of Existentialism, or the inexplicable Christian themes that are present and well developed, or the foreshadowing, or just the well written witty horror-comedy, or that Joss does have something intelligent to say about the coming of age. I mean, people don't write endless theses on "Décolletage and Symbolism: An analysis of Straussian Themes in Charmed," or "Stronger than you think; Lesbian identity formation and Smallville." So on the one hand, I do see what you are getting at, but on the other hand, it's still the 1998 lead in to "Dawson's Creek" on the WB. But, I consider it a greater accomplishment for a TV show to appeal in different ways to a broader audience. That means it gets to run seven years, as opposed to three years, then a fourth year six years latter, then a fifth year five years after that.

 

[thrasherpix]

I just remembered, back when season 6 first aired (and I wasn't yet watching), I mixed with neopagans, including Wiccans (often meeting at veggie potlucks hosted by a Universal Unitarian church and its members). There, and also on some MSN board I think called Ask a Witch, came the subject of "magic addiction." (Witchvox also got into this.) I asked what this was, if it was just wanting to cast a spell for everything (which would strike me as harder work than just doing it, or at least creating a general charm). And why was it such a thing all of a sudden? Surely an author must've come up with it in one of the new age books that was heavily marketing to Wiccans at the time.

Nope. It was season 6. I didn't fully understand it, but gods, when I finally saw it for myself...well if there are Christians who think Chick tracts (or movies like Bless the Child which is the Catholic movie version of a Chick tract) are real then why not Wiccans who think Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave an accurate description of Wicca and how magic worked?

Though technically speaking, I'm not sure if this pertains to intelligence as much as suggestibility. I'm sure they lack in the common sense department, however.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I remember pre-Christian Reconstructionists having something of a fad moment in the early 2000s, it wouldn't surprise me if Buffy and Charmed fangirls fueled casual interest. It's no different than anime fans becoming interested in Japanese culture, I suppose. Although, I would wonder if they thought "Raising the Dead using ancient Egyptian Artifacts" was an accurate representation of the Wiccan mysteries?