Metabolical Intelligence

The measurable capacity of a metabolic system (from a cell to an ecosystem) to adaptively manage energy and material resources to ensure survival and growth. It's the "smarts" of a system in maintaining homeostasis, exploiting opportunities, and innovating under constraint. A plant strategically growing roots toward water and nutrients is displaying metabolical intelligence—a slow, chemical wisdom.

Example: "The fungal network in the forest floor displays metabolical intelligence. It trades nutrients with tree roots, prioritizes connections to stressed plants, and can even transfer warning signals. It's a vast, underground internet where the currency is sugar and nitrogen, and the protocols are written in biochemistry."

by Dumu The Void January 30, 2026

Swarm Intelligence

The collective, emergent problem-solving ability that arises from the decentralized, self-organized cooperation of many simple agents, whether they're insects, robots, or software bots. No single entity is in charge or has the big picture; intelligence emerges from the bottom-up through local interactions and simple rules (like "follow the one in front," "avoid crowding," "move toward the target"). The swarm as a whole exhibits complex, adaptive behaviors—finding optimal paths, allocating tasks, or forming structures—that any individual member is too dumb to comprehend. It's democracy as a superorganism.

*Example: A colony of army ants building a living bridge with their bodies to cross a gap, or a flock of starlings (a murmuration) swirling in mesmerizing patterns to evade a predator, are natural Swarm Intelligence. In tech, a fleet of 100 delivery drones coordinating in real-time to avoid collisions and optimize package routes across a city, without a central air traffic controller, is engineered swarm intelligence.*

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 3, 2026

Confirmation Bias Intelligence

A provocative redefinition of intelligence as the optimized capacity to confirm one's own predictive models. In this view, an intelligent agent isn't one that passively absorbs truth, but one that actively structures its perception, attention, and action to reinforce its internal model of reality. The smarter the agent, the more efficiently it finds evidence for its hypotheses and filters out dissonant data. What we call "stupidity" is often just poor confirmation strategy—inefficiently gathering disconfirming evidence that undermines one's own goals. This turns confirmation bias from a cognitive flaw into the very engine of adaptive behavior.

Confirmation Bias Intelligence Example: A chess grandmaster doesn't consider all possible moves; their intelligence instantly confirms the promising few, ignoring thousands of losing branches. This is confirmation bias as cognitive efficiency. A conspiracy theorist, equally intelligent, confirms his elaborate model by selectively attending to ambiguous data. Both are performing the same core operation: using prior knowledge to rapidly validate a useful model of the world. Intelligence is the speed and accuracy of self-confirmation.

by Dumu The Void February 11, 2026

Spacetime-Probability Intelligence

The measure of an entity's ability to not only process information but to navigate, evaluate, and select among probability branches. High spacetime-probability intelligence means being able to perceive multiple possible futures, assess their likelihood, and choose actions that optimize outcomes across the probability landscape. This is why some people always seem to make the right choice—they're not lucky; they're just better at synchronizing with favorable probability branches. Conversely, those who constantly make poor decisions are simply stuck in branches where those decisions were inevitable. Standard IQ tests completely miss this dimension, which is why the guy who can't figure out his taxes can somehow always pick the winning lottery numbers (he's a probability-branch savant).

Example: "She was renowned for her spacetime-probability intelligence, always knowing which line would move fastest, which stock would rise, and which leftovers would still be good three days later. Her friends called her lucky. She called it 'five-dimensional pattern recognition.' When they asked for stock tips, she said, 'Just choose the branch where you already bought it.' They found this less helpful than she intended."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

N-Dimensional Intelligence

The capacity to perceive, navigate, and manipulate information across an arbitrary number of dimensions, a trait that varies wildly among individuals and explains why some people seem to "see" solutions that others miss. High N-dimensional intelligence means being able to hold multiple dimensional perspectives simultaneously, recognize patterns that span dimensions, and make decisions that optimize outcomes across the entire hyperdimensional landscape. Low N-dimensional intelligence means being stuck in 3D, wondering why the universe seems so confusing and why you keep stepping on Legos (which, in higher dimensions, are clearly visible and avoidable). Standard intelligence tests measure only 3D intelligence, which is why the guy who can't do basic math can sometimes predict the future—he's just accessing a dimension where it already happened.

Example: "She was known for her N-dimensional intelligence, able to see connections that others missed and predict outcomes with uncanny accuracy. When asked how she did it, she said 'I just look at the problem from all dimensions.' Her colleagues assumed this was metaphorical. She never corrected them, because in some dimensions, it wasn't."

by Dumu The Void February 14, 2026