Saturday, August 27, 2011

What is considered intelligent?

 In the book Amusing Ourselves to death,  Neil Postman pointed out, in an oral culture people with good memory or people with power to invent compact sayings of wide applicability are considered intelligent. The good example is the wise Solomon, who had three thousand proverbs in his head.

While Postman did not explain the relationship between good memory and compact sayings, I found in another book Walter Ong cast a bunch of insight on this topic. Per Ong, compact saying or proverb, indeed, is the vital way for people in oral culture to store and exchange information. Imagine in the old oral time when there are no written words, memory is the only library you can refer to. A well composed proverb with rhythm not only conveys the literal meaning, but also stores the live scene where the story of the proverb happens, thus the proverb is perfect for memorizing and mouth to mouth communication.

Ong went further, compact saying or proverb is the way how people in oral culture think or tell the truth, in some tribes the proverb is the law.  It must be very interesting to watch a scene like this: in a south pacific tribe, two men were in such a serious conflict that one wanted to kill the other guy. The chief showed up and set up a court for the case. The old chief picked up one proverb from his head “mhm, dmas, sdaets” (Love is the only gold), spoke loudly to the two men, magically the case was settled, the two men shook hands and went back home peacefully: )  Now you can imagine Solomon, the man with three thousand proverbs in mind, how powerful and intelligent he was in his age.

Nowadays people who know a lot of proverbs should be considered old-styled or classical, rather than intelligent. You may ask what is considered intelligent today? Well, personally I really admire people who are with good memory and read a lot books. The culture in which I was brought up is a mixture of orality, printing and TV. In my childhood, most of the joy I got is in an oral environment, while most of the knowledge I learnt about the society and humanity is from TV; school is just all about examinations. I didn’t feel the importance of the printing until I was in the college, and fell in love with the girl all kinds of bizarre theories. I still have all the admiration to the great intelligence in the oral or printing culture, even though I’ve been immersed in the electrical and the Internet age today.  

What is considered intelligent in the Internet age? I don’t know the answer yet, but I believe playing with real-time information is dangerous to the intelligence cuz it makes you an information processor rather than a wisdom owner.  Knowing a lot of information in the Internet age is not like reading a lot book in the printing age, you are overwhelmed with information and has little time to think.

Say, if you still treat the Internet as a tool, then knowing how to make best use of the tool can be intelligent. With this powerful tool, you could make your life easier. However, if the Internet is no more a tool to you, you just live a virtual life in the cybernetic space, probably you don’t need intelligence any longer. Become the bot of the Great Wisdom, you’ll never die.