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What Is Intelligence, Anyway?


Isaac Asimov



Literal Comprehension

 This essay has been written by American Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. When Asimov was in the army, he received an aptitude test like all soldiers and scored 160 against a normal score of 100. He had been registering scores like that all his life. So, he felt that he was highly intelligent and expected other people to think so.

 Asimov thought that he was far more intelligent than an auto-repair man on those intelligence tests. But, he was aware of the fact that he was far behind in the fields such as auto-repairing, carpentry, and farming. So, if they devised questions for intelligence tests, the writer said he’d prove himself a stupid. In a world where he could not use his academic training and his verbal talents, he would do poorly. So, the writer says one’s intelligence is not absolute but is a function of the society one lives in.

 Once, mechanics asked Asimov an intelligent question, but he could not answer it correctly. The man, then, laughed mockingly and said Asimov was a worthless educated man.



Interpretation
Asimov, in this essay, tries to say that human beings cannot be placed on a one-dimensional intelligence scale. It is because every individual is intelligent in their own field and because to have knowledge in each and every field is almost impossible. Besides, human beings are all made up of a unique mixture of intelligence and stupidity.

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