Earlier this year, the ever prestigious Harvard University kicked out dozens of its students. Why, you might ask? It was for a rather simple reason, really: plagiarism. Some of you might be surprised that students considered by many to be the brightest in the nation would end up getting kicked out for something so simple, but in the end, it does prove something very evident that we can never forget: intelligence is relative. Despite IQ, SAT, and other tests attempting to quantify human intelligence, there is never any truly purely objective and unbiased yet entirely comprehensive way to do this. There are so many factors that one must consider while describing intelligence: learning capabilities, creativity, academic knowledge, artistic talents, etc. This incredibly broad and diverse range of topics that all fall under the title of “intelligence” show that singular quantification of intelligence is not reliable and can lead to misleading results. This is one reason why in the US, college applications look at way more than just one’s GPA and standardized test scores (hopefully this does not bring back any negative memories for any of you).
Even within just the realm of academic knowledge, some people might be incredibly brilliant in some areas but humiliatingly deficient in others. My former AP biology teacher has a masters degree in biology but still did not know that snakes have bones until midway through my junior year in high school. I once watched a contestant on the TV game show Cash Cab answer a large number of trivia questions correctly that I did not know any of the answers to. However, at the very end, he not only failed to get the last question right, but he also thought that Siberia is a country…
The relativity of intelligence extends way beyond just humans. While only great apes (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos), whales, dolphins, elephants, and the European magpie have been confirmed to have self awareness through the mirror test (animals are tested to see if they can recognize themselves in a mirror), some other animals display a surprising amount of intelligence despite what their limited brain capacities might suggest themselves to be capable of.
European magpie
In the 1993 film Jurassic Park, the Velociraptors are depicted as being incredibly intelligent through their ability to open doors (I unfortunately could not obtain a video of this scene from YouTube).
The Velociraptors from Jurassic Park
In reality, even Troodon, the smartest of non-avian dinosaurs, only had intelligence roughly equal to that of an opossum.
Troodon
However, this does not necessarily mean that dinosaurs can not open doorknobs. Even pythons can learn to accomplish such a task…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhS08LjFXP8
Furthermore, there is now evidence to suggest that even crocodiles and alligators are capable of tool use: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/11/30/tool-use-in-crocs-and-gators/. Alligators and crocodiles in the US and India have been observed to swim around with sticks of their heads in order to attract nesting waterbirds looking for sticks to build their nests out of.
Often times, we cast plenty of judgments on people and animals of this world. Intelligence usually plays a big role into these judgments. We often consider Harvard students to be incredibly intelligent geniuses and cold blooded reptiles like snakes and crocodilians to be stupid beasts that know only how to kill and eat. However, as shown here, these judgments are entirely wrong. While we may feel more comfortable simply believing that the world is how we judge it to be, this is fallacious thinking and prevents us from truly seeing reality and how awesome it can be.