#intelligence check

[almondcroissantsandink]

you know they have weird little lab rituals and sky has started taking notes on them like an anthropologist

[shittalkerxox]

I think a really fun idea to explore with Tim would be the idea of him having Hyperthymesia.

Hyperthymesia is an ability that allows people to recall almost every event of their life in great detail. It's extremely rare and honestly doesn't have that much research done on it, but recent studies have suggested that people with this ability are limited to autobiographical memories, people with HSAM sometime tend to show symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and may demonstrate obsessive tendencies.

I think it would be an interesting way to explain why Tim was able to recall his first meeting with Dick Grayson and connect the dots to seeing Robin. Tim does display a lot of obsessive behaviours, and while he doesn't really physically display compulsion (like someone with OCD would typically display) there certainly is a strong case to be made for him potentially having it.

But also, can you imagine how fucking horrible it would be for Tim to remember each and every traumatic thing that ever happens to him as a hero and those memories just never fading. Yes, it would make him a better detective and allow him to be arguably smarter than your average joe, but at what cost?

[erinwantstowrite]

Peter introducing batfamily to avengers: this my (bio) dad with his ginger partner and this is his huge dysfunctional family

Peter introducing the Avengers: this my (foster) dad with his ginger partner and this is his huge dysfunctional family

maybe the real reason dick and tony hate each other is that they're so similar

[turtleblogatlast]

Unironically think that each of the bros (+April) don’t actually get how impressive their feats really are so they just do what they do and on the off chance someone comments on those feats they all react like:

[nyxi-pixie]

actually incredibly funny to me that ranpos entire thing centres on how his intelligence is not because of an ability or any other great thing, its just him. hes entirely, completely, inarguably human. and Yet, when it comes to dazai, so many people are Desperate that there just Has to be another explanation. his intelligence cant just be that hes unusual, no it must be a marker of separation, of difference so great it disallows the reality of his humanity.

[itsriotmotherfuckers]

Sit down when I tell you this because some of you are dying on this hill and it’s just wrong.

Harry Potter is, under no circumstances, the Regulus Black of the Lightning Bolt Era.

[gwendolynnderolo]

one of my favorite running things in campaign 1 of critical role is the complete and total confidence with which both sam and travis announce every single shitty dice roll

[bytewire]

Are Architects Smarter than Humans?

The way AL-AN talks mixed with the fact that Architects are more technologically progressed than humans in the Subnautica universe leads him to seeming ‘smarter’ than the average human. He has a wide range of knowledge and despite his lack of experience with human social cues he is able to articulate himself extremely well. He also has access to tons of information due to his prior position as a scientist, but also because of what comes with existing as an Architect in the first place.

I mean, if your brain had direct access to all information available currently, you'd of course seem smart, but is that just you retelling what things have already been discovered or is this you being ‘smart’?

In that case you are only as smart as Google allows you to be (and the proverbial Architect GoogleTM is damn good). If you took an Architect never connected to the network and a human with no access to the internet how would they compare with their baseline intellect?

Wait a minute—what does that even solve? You could also argue the fact that because Architects are (usually) always connected to the network that this hypothetical is entirely unfair because it strips Architects of something that defines how they function. Being connected to the network is their normal existence, which would indeed imply that they are smarter than humans, yes? As they normally should have access to this advantage.

The average Architect has all the available knowledge that their species has learned available to it at all times while the average human has to rely only on things they’ve learned and how well they can research a certain topic. Again, being connected to the network for Architects is like if your brain was connected to Google and also literally everyone that currently exists and those that existed in the past. Just because a singular Architect may not have learned something for themselves doesn’t mean they can’t implement and use that knowledge. Just like how humans don’t need to have been the one to discover something for them to learn about and understand said thing.

Except then we go back to the issue of are they smart or do they just reiterate things they have available information on without actually having had studied or learned about said things? Even that fails to acknowledge the fact that they’re a hivemind! Trying to measure just one Architect is pointless when the only Architect mind that exists singularly from the rest of the network is AL-AN—besides he was never supposed to exist individually in the first place… and we have gone back around in a circle.

How could you even begin to compare the two species at all when they are so inherently different? Architects have senses that humans cannot begin to comprehend as we have never experienced them and vice versa. Their perceptions are very different from ours. Differences that make them seem so otherworldly to the other that it’s difficult to ascertain where you begin to measure which is ‘better’ and which is ’worse’.

To complicate things even further you would have to consider what each species considers to be intelligent at all, and then both would have to agree on these requirements. Is a fish lesser than a human just because it experiences existence in a way unfamiliar to us? What even is ‘smart’ or ‘intelligence’ and who decides what that means? It’s always going to be biased when the beings who created the definition also makes the rules and the criteria that must be met to fit that definition. An IQ test would mean nothing to a species that evolved under entirely different circumstances and whose minds work in entirely opposite ways to our own. Just as whatever they use to measure intelligence might not apply to how our brains work…

…Oh my god, it’s a loop that never ends. I can’t even remember which side I was arguing for, or if I was ever even arguing for one at all. Quite honestly, there’s no answer to my original question. I’ll be frank with you I cannot come up with one anyhow. I tried, but the more I kept writing the more I realized that each point contradicted itself again and again until we end up here. Back at the beginning.

“Are Architects Smarter than Humans?”

[greseadraws]

my barbarian tav has two brain cells and shadowheart is doing her best to keep them alive

[saber-smithy]

I just had a fucking realization...

[animentality]

a beta reader left a comment on my manuscript that was basically:

"this story is a waste of my time."

and it's like....

i have thick skin and all, since i've been working with beta readers for a long time, but...

ouch.

thanks, i guess. helpful.

[dumbstupidfandomblog]

I don't see enough people in the Mouthwashing fandom talking about how the "I have found myself sexually excited at the sight of cartoon horses" line is not literal. Jimmy was just saying that to make Anya uncomfortable/embarassed and force her to put down bogus answers on his psych evaluation because he thought the whole thing was stupid. He thought it was funny. He's not actually attracted to horses.

[skull-pun]

We're actually doomed as a species holy fuck

[tenebrius-excellium]

Nope sorry the Arcane hype is not over... Jinx is so cooooool.... her hair... her body language... her thingamajigs... the way she observes before acting, weighing people by their trustability, like a cat. Her eyes spot the stuff that others miss. She's so kind. She's so unhinged. I understand most of it about her and she's awesome.

[phoenixcatch7]

It's such a shame wwx is terrified of dogs when everything about him screams dog. I have never seen a character be more neglected border collie coded.

[mayapapaya33]

I am really appreciating Sam's care and attention to detail and ethics in her use of charm magic. A lot of times stories kind of gloss over how fucked up that kind of thing is when the "good guys" do it. Now, it's an adventure story, there's going to be combat and shenanigans, I just feel like messing with someone's willpower and brain should be on par with the hack and slash mundane violence that also happens in those stories.

They made it clear that this particular magic wasn't imposing a new alien thought, merely amplifying something already present, as if to make it ok, and I really appreciate how Sam still recognizes the horror and lack of consent in that anyway. She lower's people's inhibitions, like a drug. Sure, maybe deep down (or not so deep down) there might be a desire or an impulse somewhere, the important part is the ability to act or not act on those impulses of your own free will.

Setting aside all of the normal amounts of random thoughts and desires someone might have and NEVER act on for a variety of incredibly good reasons. Have you ever stood next to the edge of a cliff or ledge and had your brain, just for a split second, suggest jumping? With 0 suicidal intent by the way, just a fucked up little "huh that would be wild," and then it's gone. Under the "rules" of Sam's magic, that still counts, it was already inside you after all, she didn't invent it.

And that's just neurotypical levels of brain fuckery. Speaking of suicide, that's also a "desire already within someone" she could amplify if you wanted to get real dark about it. Or imagine if she got ahold of someone with ocd or schizophrenia or kleptomania or something. Those ARE in your brain already. Somebody with ocd might "want" to spend the next 6 hours washing their hands until they crack and bleed, that doesn't mean it's a good thing. And if she has the power to strip away impulse control that is horrifying and I really respect her for knowing that.