h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Intelligence/genius:
the ability to see patterns and relationships in things that commonly go unoticed. [Example: the invention of the wheel]

Normal:
things that have come into general acceptance; within a range of generally accepted behavior. [Example: Copernicus was persecuted-seen as 'not normal'- for suggesting that the universe did NOT revolve around the earth]

Conclusion:
sometimes people who see new relationships between things, or see things 'differently' seem odd to the rest of us.

Comment:
Normal is necessary for a stable society. Genius disrupts normal society, to varying degrees [and sometimes in ways that are totally without merit]. The normal group turns on the disrupting force in an instinctive reaction and attempt to preserve stability. Hence, geniuses are sometimes seen as 'freaky'.

Consider: Ancient Egypt was very stable; it didnt change for 2000 years. This was not necessarily a good thing.

Consider: a society that can accept a range of 'freaky' within itself without being threatened will be a stronger and more dynamic society for the new ideas.

AhHa, dear mouse,

we have something in common...

[I suspected a kindred mouse/spirit]

-blu
}:=8

I agree. I've tried not acting so intelligent, but I hate it. Why should I apologise for being a well-educated, intelligent woman? If some one doesn't like the words I use, they can get a dictionary or book on word power. If they don't like the fact that I know more than they do, they can stock up on reference works. From now on, if they don't like the way I am, tough!

That makes two of us. My husband has yet to beat me at Triv, even on a bad day. He accuses me of memorising the answers, because I read the question cards during the game. This, of course, is untrue. There are too many questions to memorise, it's just that interesting facts tend to stick in my brain. Like: 'Alexander Pope was known as the Bard of Twickenham', or 'Diphallic terata is a condition where a man has two penises'.

This only applies if the web-site is managed and maintained by members of MENSA, which is not necessarily the case. Being able to spell has nothing to do with one's I.Q., anyway.

IQ tests are such a crap way of determining someone's intelligence. I did the '11-plus' test at junior school in the UK. It's a test Brits used to take to determine which kids were 'brainy' enough at ages 10/11 to be offered a place at Grammar school (i.e. selective but non-fee-paying schools for 11-18 age kids, with 'dedicated' teachers and generally better books and facilities than the average UK school).

Everyone used to bang on about how it tested 'pure' logical intelligence. It was much the same as IQ tests e.g. spot the odd one out of four things, what's the next shape in this sequence, that kind of thing. But you can learn the patterns and get better at it.
I did that, got a perfect score and found myself a few months later at the age of 10 in a scary old room in a weird municipal building surrounded by head-teachers of various schools all pitching their schools at me.
Now I didn't want to know who could provide the best education or which school had the highest percentage of University admissions per pupil. I chose the one with the heated outdoor swimming pool and it turned out to be a nightmare - it was a boarding school, all beatings, group masturbation and torture by older kids - and worst of all, the pool was only open in Summer

So I ran away and ended up having to go to another Grammar school. Which was 1 hours bus ride from home and no girls! And yet if I'd flunked the 11-plus, I could have gone to the school over the road from my house and mixed with all my friends from my old school and not have to wait 'til I was past 20 to realise that girls were human beings and not strange alien/goddess creatures.

So the moral of my story is: be average - most people are.
But it's too late for me, I'm a freak (IQ 164 btw), but I know some Latin so it was obviously all worth it

I know very little about the subject in question, but I have read that the average IQ of college students is slightly higher than that of the general population, and slightly higher again for university peeps... so although having a low or average IQ doesn't mean you *can't* get into college, it does mean you're slightly less likely to...

I've had my IQ tested twice by an educational psychologist, once when I started to stand out somewhat in primary school and a second time before they would let me skip two years of highschool... so it's obviously thought to be of some importance. If you're interested, I scored about 140 each time - but an internet IQ test gave me 168, and I prefer to quote that one

I've never pretended to be less intelligent than I am (except, occasionally, in the manner of Zaphod Beeblebrox ), and I'm very thankful for the fact that I've never felt pressured to...

When it comes down to it, IQ *isn't* the do-all and end-all of measuring human brain capacity... it can, however, be a useful tool.

I read somewhere else that a cat has an IQ of four and a dog of five... anyone know where these figures came from?

Finally... you can try the test which gave me 168 at www.iqtest.com - it only takes thirteen minutes.

Cheers for that - I just got 146 btw...not brilliant (especially as it's not _that_ comprehensive) but it'll do

Carol Vordeman I ain't *ahem*

I just tried it and got 150. I have done other I.Q. tests that give me a score of 140+. I guess I am a genius. My husband reckons I am, but he's biased.

Maybe that's why I'm lousy at calculus. Too much memorization, too little creative problem-solving.

Exactly. The weird facts always stick around. To this day, practically the only things I remember from my European History class are the ones with names like the Tennis Court Oath and the Defenestration of Prague (which has to be the most pretentious name ever given to an act as simple as tossing two ambassadors out a window.)

Hi Cheerful, I guess this means you're a freak just like the rest of us. How does that feel?

Anyway: what does an IQ do for us? I've known my intelligence to be quite a bit above average, ever since I was 11, (last count was 140+, just like yours), but I've found no advantage in it.

It seems like nothing more than a number to to boast about, in the order of magnitude of "Mine's bigger than yours". Well, if anyone ever says something like that to me, I reply "But MINE has been paid for legally!"

>Being able to spell has nothing to do with one's I.Q., anyway.

Well, of course not, but I like to poke fun.

Hm, interesting test. Scored me 147. (Test some 20 years ago as a child scored me at "only" 130.)

Experience with Mensa: well, who knows. It's just like anything else in life. Some of the people are really great, and some are right assholes. There's politics (American Mensa has about 50,000 members) and infighting and everything that happens in an organization that large. And a really weird spectrum of events and interest groups. Anyway. I was rather shocked to get a certificate in the mail a while back which said I'd been a member for 10 years continuously.

And just for Spartus: grammar ain't intelligence.

It's not like I have to be in a room full of geniuses to feel comfortable, just have someone of moderate intelligence that doesn't just stare at me with that *duh* look and get peeved when they can't understand even if I try to explain it for them. "Why don't you just use regular words?" Uhm.. I -am- using regular words you farking idiot. *sigh*

Hear hear!

I look forward to the day I can let my wildflowers grow without getting a citation for not keeping my lawn 1/2-inch tall and brown from the heat!

I have just taken the IQ test - stoned! and I got 139! Not bad for a kid from the hills....

Heh... Seems a lot of folks round here claim that distinction (from the hills )

I read an item a while back (probably in Reader's Digest in a waiting room somewhere) from a bloke who hired out sailing boats. One group hired a boat and, when it was returned, he found that they had left their group pennant run up the mast. The pennant had been strung in such a way that the only way he could get it down was to climb the mast and untie the pennant. After a lot of hassle he got the pennant free and took a look at who it was for. Imagine his surprise when he read 'MENSA'.

Geniuses? I don't think so!

Ahem!

There is already a very fine article on Mensa, thank you very much! I wrote it a few weeks ago. It's over here: http://www.h2g2.com/A167311

As regards to the IQ test thing: most of the ones I've seen don't test memory stuff...it's usually some sort of puzzle that you have to be able to figure out. But all they're really testing is your ablility to work out those types of puzzles. It's a good indication of intelligence, but the scores can be widely different, depending on what you had for breakfast, as someone already said.

There are too many types of intelligence to quantitatively measure it all anyway. Some people are geniuses with music, or with the written word, or a paintbrush. Some people can memorize a 500 page novel in an hour. We've all heard the stereotype of the genius who can't tie his shoes...he's out there in real life. I see the whole thing this way, I'm intelligent. Smarter than most people on this planet. And people who meet me can tell this right off. So who really needs a silly number to quantify it? I'm smart, and I know it. Good enough for me.

As far as acceptance in a dum (misspelled on purpose) world, that's easy. Act dum yourself. A genius can always pretend idiocy, but an idiot cannot pretend genius.