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5. The metaphor of the semaphore.  

In spite of all the reflection on the previous points, I may not have explained the different concepts of intelligence and their main characteristics with the desired clarity. In this respect, I think that there is a terminological difficulty due to the nature of language.

Consequently, I am going to establish a relation between the functioning of our mind and its different parts with the world of automobiles, trying to find parallelisms that help to differentiate the concepts with precision and simplicity.

It is worth taking into account that when a fair amount of people, I suppose for emotional reasons, use the word intelligence they use it like the equivalent of the infrastructure of State highways along with international technology of the automobile industry plus something strange in case they someone tries to understand them. His or her initial premise is that nobody knows for sure what intelligence is!

The idea is to give an example to clear up what I have said previously, not to demonstrate that that it is the truth. All right, upon better understanding of the ideas there may be a tendency to understand and accept them as true or very possible.

Analysing the concept of automobiles, we can compare the degree of conceptual complexity and derivations that it could present us with. Any vital impulse system will probably be fine for our purpose, but the automobile example is very graphic and everybody is familiar with automobiles.

5.a) Concept and parts of automobile.  

An automobile is not the same as a car, or a train, a truck, a boat, a plane, etc. That is, its meaning is more complicated than the solely literal something that moves itself, and although we all know what an automobile is, its definition is not simple. Just the same, intelligence is not memory, creativity, mathematical or musical ability, nor other abilities or intellectual capacities.

Another subject that is more obscure than the concept of automobiles -because it demands an additional step- is evaluation in regards to power in order to make comparisons between different automobiles, models, and brands; in short, the goodness or measurement of the capacity and efficiency of a specific automobile. An approximation would be the average velocity reached, but the velocity is more of a final effect than a capacity.

The subject becomes even more complicated if we suppose that we can not see the automobile, that we can only observe its effects, that is, people or things that are moved from one place to another in a certain time with certain comfort, safety, etc.

 
Parts of automobile
 

 

• Relational automobile.  
  
  A solution for identifying the concept of the automobile is to turn to all of its parts; if we manage to determine all of its elements, in theory, we should be able to specify the concept referred to the group of its parts.
  
  So, as common parts of automobile we have the motor, the wheels, the breaks, and the windows. These parts of the car are present in the concept of an automobile. Well, in fact, the first three are parts, but the windows are not necessary, some automobiles do not have windows (sometimes I use the words car and vehicle for comfort and variety).
  
  Although this concept of group of parts of automobile is important, and it helps us understand its characteristics, it does not seem that it would be very useful for a generic definition and much less so for an estimation of goodness, measurement, or evaluation of its capacity.
  
  It is enough to indicate that the breaks fulfil an important technical function in cars but they cannot perform the typical function of a car alone and they are not exclusive to cars. The wheels and the motor can at least move by themselves, etc.
  
  In fact, broadly speaking, even workshops, garages, parking, streets, and roads would form a part of the relational world of automobile.

• Conditional automobile.  
  
  We can strengthen the circle of the searched for concept if we associate a sub-group of the relational parts of an automobile with some specific operation conditions; for example, the group of parts of the car that can allow for the moving of people or things from one place to another that has a means of propulsion.
  
  We could also associate different operative modes to the same sub-group of parts automobile and we would have different conditional automobiles.
  
  Now we start to be able to observe the goodness of a particular automobile, for example, to know how long it will take to go from one city to another, but for this, we have to take into account the number of passengers, the state and preparation of the driver, if it is daytime or night time, if it is raining or not, etc. As we can see, there are a multitude of conditions associated to the concept of a car's goodness or even of the goodness of a group of part of an automobile.

• Multiple automobiles.  
  
  We can think about the existence of very different cars, parts of cars or groups of parts of cars as the power of the motor, number of spaces, size of the car, of the trunk, all terrain, four-wheel drive, chains for snow, etc. There are also various conditions such as curves and highway lanes, etc.
  
  There will really exist automobiles prepared for certain conditions that are very different from one another so that their comparison will be very arduous, even artificial or without real meaning.
  
  An additional characteristic of automobiles is the incorporating a high degree of security for the passengers; it would not be considered a vehicle apt for its function if it were not secure.

5.b) The driver and technology of automobile.  

Now we are in a better situation to understand one of the important reasons of the polemic about genetic structure of intelligence and environmental influence.

If by intelligence we are referring to the time that it takes an automobile to go from one specific city to another, we have to recognize that this depends to a large extent on the type of highway, curves, the meteorological conditions, whether it is daytime or night time, the driver, etc.; all of these environmental conditions are more important than the car's power.

On the other hand, if by intelligence we are referring to the goodness of a automobile to perform any route, in any meteorological condition, with an average driver, etc., then, doubtlessly, the power of the car's motor will be one of the best indicators; a small group of indicators related to the fabric design -genetic structure- can make up a very significant index in respect to the searched for goodness.

Of course, other factors count, and flawed maintenance can make a car crash, but normally; this is prevented with minimum maintenance. A real example is a car that made the running-in in three cylinders, by the implicit will of the corresponding technicians. Real nice! There were never any particular problems with the motor afterwards.

Another interesting aspect of this metaphor is that many elements of an automobile are highly correlated from the technological point of view or modernity in spite of fulfilling functions that are independent of the vehicle's activity.

The subject of training can also be studied; a driver can learn the curves of a mountain highway and substantially improve the time needed for a specific route. However, this does not mean that the driver is better, or that the automobile is more powerful, or that if two years go by without travelling this route, or if the driver changes to another highway, he/she will maintain the advantages obtained from the training, etc.

On the other hand: a good automobile will always be a good automobile, even though it has a flat tire and does not move.

Finally, I want to point out that if we do not have the means to know the technical characteristics of a car when estimating them according to the time it takes for a specific route, we will make many errors -or the variance of the estimators will be great- due to the large amount of factors that influence the specific results of a particular route with a specific drivera...

Take note that the mentioned factors cannot be easily isolated because each one of them has multiple factors that condition them. We cited that the same driver may be tired, happy, rushed…or the other way around.

5.c) Goodness indicators.  

Now, if what we really want is a measure of the goodness of the car in the performance of any function and be able to compare some with others in a simple somewhat precise fashion we would have to look for some type of indicator.

A good indicator of general goodness could be its price, but this depends on the market and includes aspects like famous people's cars or cars seen in movies, old cars, the effect of the brand and publicity, special accessories, taxes, etc. Also, this would not be useful to us for the case of intelligence, although there is a certain correlation between intelligence and economic power.

The motor's cylinder is a good and probably the most used indicator of a car's specific goodness. It is very good because it is independent of the external conditions, highly related to the price, to average velocity, to safety, to technology, etc.

If that corresponding to the consumption is added to the indicator we could have a compound more precise indicator than the previous. If it is of common use we could call it the "g" factor of the automobiles. Even if it were not the perfect indicator, it would be very comfortable, it would allow for simple comparisons and would be understood by everyone.

* * *

When Mª José finished the book, Globus said to Goblin:

- Mª José debe must be very intelligent, because she’s almost never wrong.

Goblin answered:

- I agree, and she only talks about what she understands!