Integrated Theory of Intelligence
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(22) Intelligence would appear to require a life cycle (fertilization to adulthood) to direct its spatial concentration. Whatever level of intelligence is achieved in any organism is very much dependent upon the total overall spatial arrangements of all molecules within the organism, and particularly those of the central nervous system. It would appear that any organism can only reach its maximum intellectual potential if matter is allowed to undergo the normal process of accretion which occurs during growth of the organism. Any process which interferes with normal neurological growth will reduce the anticipated level of intelligence in that organism. The life process, beginning on a molecular level within single cells (sperm and ovum), has an intellectual level potential that may or may not be achieved, depending upon whether normal development occurs or is interrupted along the way. If development occurs normally, the growth process results in the effective concentration of intelligence into a confined space via molecular accretion.

It is uncertain as to whether intelligence is actively guiding the atoms and molecules into specific complex configurations or arrangements, or is simply the recipient or beneficiary of some innate internal pressure of self-generating complexity. In either case, increasing amounts of intelligence and consciousness, as they relate to our present existence, require increasingly complex arrangements of atoms and molecules.

The gene holds the blueprint for the construction of the organism and the way that matter-energy is spatially organized. The genes working in tandem oversee and orchestrate the life cycle of the intelligence accretion process. There is no one element in the human mind (brain) which is aware or conscious by itself, just as no one atom or enzyme in a cell is alive by itself. Yet when those atoms are brought together in an exquisitely ordered pattern we get a high level of consciousness. It is the very special way in which the atoms and molecules are ordered within our brain which helps create mind. We have divided the brain into gross anatomical structures such as the cerebral cortex, thalamus, brainstem nuclei, etc., but the brain viewed on an atomic level would not recognize these boundaries. All atomic events happening anywhere within the brain would potentially influence all other areas, just as it has been previously suggested that even distant cosmic events would influence the brain's function. As dictated by the inverse square law, local atomic events within the brain would influence other areas of the brain to a much greater extent than distant cosmic events.

(23) Intelligence, like matter and energy, cannot be destroyed. We don't as yet know what happens to intelligence upon the death of an organism. However, as one of the basic properties of the universe it is considered very probable that intelligence can neither be created nor destroyed. The level of complexity of intelligence may vary extremely from its simplest to most complex manifestation, but even at the death of an organism the total amount of information accumulated by that organism will be preserved. It may become disorganized and dispersed, but not lost. At the death of an organism, its system's intelligence either remains focused or it becomes dispersed in space. If intelligence is more a property of matter it will disperse. If intelligence is more a basic property of space it could remain focused or intact. At the present moment in time, science is unable to make this determination.




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