Integrated Theory of Intelligence
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As the average level of energy per unit volume of space within the universe has been dropping, because space is expanding into a larger volume, intelligence has become more effective in controlling its movement. The following metaphor might help understand this concept. My intelligent mind is incapable of redirecting the flight of a high-energy bullet coming toward me. However, it would be able to deflect a lower-energy baseball, thus avoiding injury. The greater the momentum of any object in motion, the less effective intelligence is in altering its direction of travel. In the early universe when the energy density (average energy level per unit volume of space) was very much higher than now, it was not possible for intelligence to manipulate and distribute matter with the same degree of effectiveness as at the present time. Just as energy throughout the universe is not altered in total quantity, but may lose quality, intelligence does not alter in quantity, but is continuously increasing in quality as it relates to material structures and its ability to direct work.

Following World War II, the concept of entropy underwent a transformation of understanding when it was linked to information theory. The classical view of entropy implied that chaos and confusion were the rule, and that chaos was the ultimate destiny of all things. This concept has since been modified. The relationship is still incompletely understood and is still being questioned. This therefore makes any discussion of entropy as to how it relates to information and intelligence very difficult. The concepts dealt with in this chapter might be expected to change somewhat as our understanding improves. What is presented might at best turn out to be an approximation of the reality.

Until there is a better understanding of entropy, it might be helpful to divide its meaning into the following:

Heat entropy can be defined as a thermodynamic measure of the amount of energy unavailable for useful work in a system undergoing change. It was at a minimum at the origin of our universe relative to the amount of energy potentially available for the performance of useful work. It continues to increase on a universal scale.

Information entropy can be defined as the measure of the degree of disorder in a substance or system undergoing change. It measures the capacity to convey meaning, and was at a maximum at the origin of our universe relative to the state of disorder present. It continues to decrease on a universal scale. In information theory, entropy is a measure of the information content of a message evaluated with respect to its uncertainty.3

Open systems, which apply to every object within the universe, have both a decreased heat and information entropy locally during their entire lifespan or period of existence. The universe when observed as a whole would appear to be undergoing increasing heat entropy, but decreasing information entropy.

Organic systems create order out of chaos and are negatively entropic (both heat and information), with a net gain of information, until death. According to Lila Gatlin, when applied to living organisms entropy measures the randomness of a system. Higher entropy implies a random, disorganized, disordered system with equiprobable, independent events and has potential for acquiring and storing information. Lower entropy implies a non-random, organized, ordered system with a divergence from equiprobable, independent events, and with stored information.4... Her definition best describes information entropy.




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