The dilemma of defining and locating the "smoke" of genuine smarts. We can measure performance (IQ, skills, adaptability), but can't pinpoint the fundamental "fire" that produces it. Is intelligence a single, general thing (the g factor), or a bag of tricks? Can it exist without consciousness? If we create an AI that outperforms humans in every task, have we created intelligence, or just an elaborate, hollow simulation? It's the problem of separating the appearance of smart behavior from the elusive, essential quality of understanding that presumably underlies it.
Example: "The chess computer beat the grandmaster, but faced with a collapsed aisle in a grocery store, it's useless. The hard problem of intelligence is figuring out if true smarts is that narrow excellence, or the general, common-sense adaptability to navigate a messy world that the computer utterly lacks." Hard Problem of Intelligence
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
Get the Hard Problem of Intelligence mug.Similar to cognition, but focused on adaptive problem-solving. The hard problem is distinguishing between evolved, automated biochemical responses and genuine, flexible intelligence. When a plant shapes its growth to outcompete a neighbor, is it executing a brilliant strategic move, or is it just a biological robot running immutable code written by natural selection? The line is blurred, forcing us to ask if "intelligence" requires an ability to learn anew within a lifetime, or if eons of genetic "learning" can produce something that qualifies.
*Example: "The tree's roots detected a water pipe leak 30 feet away and grew toward it. The hard problem of plant intelligence: Is that a clever solution to a novel problem, showing real-time smarts, or just a lucky coincidence of its always-grow-toward-moisture programming hitting the jackpot?"*
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
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