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MurderByEgoDeath t1_ir3gubk wrote

Also, it's important to note, a lower qualitative level of intelligence can't recognize a greater intelligence. For example, my pet cat doesn't realize I'm smarter than it (in fact I have a feeling it assumes the opposite lol). But there is no higher qualitative level than us. That's really the main point, there is no higher than universal. There could be much greater quantitative intelligences than us, but we would definitely recognize that. It would just be an entity with massive creative ability, but they would still be able to explain everything to us, and even without them explaining it, if we took the time we could understand it ourselves.

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sideways t1_ir3l5kh wrote

That was exactly my point.

If you agree that a lower qualitative level of intelligence can't recognize a greater one, what makes you so confident that our level is "universal"?

Perhaps we can agree that a baby or small child, similar to animals, does not have universal intelligence. At what point do people "graduate" into it?

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MurderByEgoDeath t1_ir56hmf wrote

I mean there is clearly a cut off, and we clearly do "graduate" into it. But it's probably very very young. Definitely a baby already has it. They're constantly learning new things almost immediately, if not immediately, which means the graduation could possibly be in the womb. But this is an unsolved problem. We can be pretty sure that no other animals have it, or else they wouldn't be limited on what they can learn.

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