[ExI] 1DIQ: an IQ metaphor to explain superintelligence

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 27/10/2025 13:31, John K Clark wrote:
> I note that ravens and parrots are about as intelligent as chimpanzees, but their brains are much much smaller. My theory is that if there is Evolutionary pressure for a land animal to get smarter it can take the simple brute force path and just make the brain more massive, but that won't work for a flying creature that has far stricter weight considerations. So I predict that if you follow neurons in a bird's brain you'll find far less spaghetti code and inefficient wheels within wheels then you'll find in a land-based creature that cannot fly, like us. So being called a "birdbrain" might not be an insult.

I understand that the way birds do it is to have smaller neurons than 
non-flying creatures. So their brains can be just as complex and 
inefficient, and probably are. It would be unusual, I think, for 
evolution to back-track and re-do a design that works well enough, no 
matter how unnecessarily complicated (see the usual list: Eye, Recurrent 
laryngeal nerve, etc., etc. None of those have been redesigned to be 
better, so I can't see it happening with brains (Richard Dawkins has a 
neat explanation for why this happens)). That job's ours, I reckon. Or 
at least our intellectual successors.

It's a shame, though. It would be nice to have a more orderly brain to 
pick apart to see how they work, and to contrast with an equivalent 
non-flying animal.

-- 
Ben