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artoflifehealingarts · 5 years ago

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Posted on Quora

By Tony Castaldo

Q: My IQ is at around 151 (Mensa). What can I expect to achieve in life?

Welcome to the club! You can expect to achieve absolutely nothing!

This is like saying, “I have a race car engine. How fast can I go?”

Well, buddy, you need the rest of the car, and unfortunately nature will not always match your engine with all the rest of the mechanical parts in your car. All the parts are randomly chosen and then forced to fit together.

The “rest of the car” in this case is both your physical self, and your emotional self, all you have proven with an IQ test is that you are capable of fast analytical problem solving. That doesn’t automatically make you well-adjusted emotionally, it doesn’t automatically make you an athlete, it doesn’t mean anybody will love you or you will love them, it doesn’t mean you will make a ton of money.

Here is the key you will learn when you get older. It may take time, but I’m giving you the hint now, so you’ll recognize it more quickly than I did: Emotions are king, and will ultimately determine your fate. Not rationality, that is a servant to your emotions, and it will always be.

The neocortex is called that because it evolved recently; before that we were ruled by instincts and emotions and very limited reasoning power, like all other animals. Well, in this case evolution worked by adding something new, not subtracting. Before the neocortex, our instincts and emotions were completely in charge of our actions, and guess what? They STILL hold the throne!

There is an “accidental” brain experiment* with a man that lost his amygdalae in surgery (basically the structures that act as an emotional clearing house) to excise a brain tumor. As a result, he was rational, he could solve math problems, ace quizzes, he did not lose any of his intellect. But he was incapacitated anyway, because he could not make decisions. Asked to pick out clothes for a day, he dithered in the closet for hours, until he had to go to the bathroom. And narrating what he was doing, he could endlessly analyze and come up with reasons to pick one shirt over another, depending on who he might meet, where he might go, what the weather would be, and never come to a conclusion.

You might think he’d get bored or angry or frustrated and just grab a shirt: Nope. Those are emotions. He wasn’t embarrassed by taking so long; he didn’t hate himself, he didn’t worry about what it meant that he could not make a decision. All emotions. In essence, he just did not LIKE any shirt more than another, and he had no rational reason to pick one over another. So his intellect just came up with one thing after another to present to the king (the amygdalae), which was dead on the throne and never indicated to the intellect “I prefer that option.”

Now bladder pain, hunger, muscles and joints hurting and getting tired from standing too long; those are not emotions, and he knew how to respond to that. Physical discomfort is a thing; but also not intellect. Given orders, he knew how to respond to that.

So what is the evolutionary role of Intellect, then? It is a SERVANT to your physical and emotional self, and provides you information, projections and predictions, and understanding for you to emotionally react to.

Why stay in school, when, emotionally it would be much more satisfying to have some money by getting a job? Your intellect will project those two futures, in one you likely have a better job and better life, in the other your short-term indulgences will lead to lesser jobs and a more difficult life. And when you emotionally consider one of those options better than another, the intellect has done its job and you stay in school, despite the short term allure of not being a broke ass student.

You have to learn to manage your emotions, delay gratification, and your intellect can help you with that, but it also depends on your emotional constitution right now. The Intellect can let you breeze through school and college. Mine let me finish a Bachelor’s in Mathematics in 3 years flat, and my Master’s in same in 18 months. It let me go to college for 12 years, earning five degrees with a 4.0 GPA, including my PhD.

Academic success is yours, and getting it will help you become financially successful, because our society pays (literally and figuratively) way too much regard to advanced college degrees.

But your emotions can derail all that. Mensa itself has studied this**; their members are not all successful, even in their own judgment, not all of them are living happily ever after. They have had members get addicted to drugs, get defrauded, go to jail for committing impulsive crimes. They have had high IQ women that got pregnant and bore children at 15. Mensans end up as janitors, truck drivers, and Amazon warehouse workers. Mensans have struggled with depression, and committed suicide. Mensans have attempted stupid stunts and ended up paralyzed for life. Mensans become obese and diabetic and get diseases because they cannot control their eating, their depression, or resist impulsive temptations.

And guess what? All of that shit at about the same rate as the general population that is NOT high IQ.

Why? Because emotions rule our lives. The best thing you can do with your intellect is not to “gain control” of your emotions; you cannot dethrone the King and should not try. But what your intellect CAN do is manipulate the King, learn to convince yourself to choose the best balanced outcome of short, intermediate and long term gains.

Should you study Computer Science and within that Algorithmic Science, there is an interesting class of Algorithms called “Greedy Algorithms”. Greedy algorithm - Wikipedia . The hallmark of such algorithms is that always choosing the optimal short term solution is guaranteed to produce the optimal long term solution, so it is very easy.

That is how basic animals work, as if this is always true of the world. It is why we can trap them: We humans can devise traps so the optimal short term solution for the animal will NOT lead to their optimal long term solution, it will kill them instead. The rat taking the bite of cheese triggers a spring-loaded bar that breaks its neck. The deer chased by a human takes the route of fastest escape and lands in a concealed pit.

People have all that same Greedy Algorithm equipment built in. The purpose of the intellect is to let you defeat this very strong tendency to choose the optimal short term solution, because the Greedy Algorithm does NOT solve all problems. Animals, and us, evolved emotions to use the Greedy Algorithm because it is the simplest and easiest algorithm to implement, one step up from the random action of bacteria and viruses.

The intellect is there to help you accurately predict the consequences and outcomes of your actions in the future, so your emotions can make an informed choice about what will give you the most emotional gratification in the long term, or at least for as far as you can see the future.

There is often a tendency amongst the high IQ crowd to put undue importance on the value of their intellect. They want to “Spock it out,” dismiss emotions as unimportant.

Well, Spock is mythical bullshit, humans don’t work like that, so figure that out as soon as you can. The point of life is emotions, and the best thing you can do with your intellect is use it and delayed gratification diligently to ensure you live a happy life, find love, avoid fear and embarrassment and prison and disease and disability, work at a job you love that uses your talents.

There is no point in being smart if it doesn’t make you happy. You have been gifted with a superior ability to solve problems and understand consequences. A bigger hammer to solve life’s problems, or avert them altogether. But it is useless if you don’t use it, there is no point in being proud of just owning a big hammer, you need to use it.

And remember that your Intellect is a servant to your emotions, it isn’t there to replace them, but to inform them, so you can resist short term gratification when your intellect sees it is likely to sabotage your long term future. That is how you avoid being trapped like an animal and suffering at the hands of others.

* Amygdala results: I believe I first read about this in the book “The Man That Mistook His Wife For A Hat”, but for a neurologist’s talk see Antonio Damasio | Speaker | TED.

** See for example High intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities.

The remainder of the conclusions and advice are my own based upon reading several such studies, and the implications mentioned.

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ecotone99 · 6 years ago

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[MF] Diary of Geff

CAMP REPORT- ITEM 562

This is the year 498 [(ref) Galaxy: Mound, Star: Ant, Planet: Hole, Satellite: Egg]. Head of excavation: Sabrina Moonwalker. This is an ‘early report’, to be shared among peers in order to avoid delay till the publication of final compilation of information and thus, the information contained about the item can change in the final publication. I have checked, read and referenced this report written by my trainee (11QU56) for the above mentioned specimen. I hereby provide my clearance for the report to be published Signature: __SABRINA_____ Status: approved

As usual, it’s a cold and dusty day on Mars. This piece concerns the archaeological finding from the colony in south-west. The contents reported below have not been found exactly in the colony rather about 20 kms North of the first site. A large cylinder has been unearthed which contains this item and a few antics, probably from the same time-frame in which this item was produced. Nevertheless we will do dating of all of them and run the forensics to be sure because the container was not found in a sealed condition. ITEM-562 is a script, it has been reproduced below and is crucial because it throws light on the conditions of the colony in the early era. This is believed to be one of the very few complete texts we have been able to obtain.

below is the content recovered from script

12 December 2137

Dear Reader,

It is chilly, dry and dark outside. I am sitting at my table in the office. This cute table-lamp, the only illumination source in my vicinity, gifted by Carlij, gives me company in these late hours. A photo of my family from one of their picnics sits in a frame on my table although I am not in that photo. I think the presence of my glass and steel clad body would have only made it look like a hostage situation. Although I would have looked like the knight in shining armor. Also, I am pretty sure that if Gina shows such a picture to her friends, the boys would keep a distance from her. This chair is really uncomfortable though. I have to keep shifting my posture, no surprises that the person before me resigned from the job. Moving on to what this is:

This is Geff [Exl:311207IDA#2M]. As I write this, I am about to leave for an expedition in deep space and thus, as a mark of tradition I am leaving this letter behind which might be my final word to this world. If my death is confirmed while my family lives then Jenny you are probably reading this with Carlij and Gina, in which case I want you to know that I am sorry I failed to keep my promise and if you aren’t one of these then I want you to know that Jenny is my wife and Carlij and Gina our children. Sometimes I am afraid and fear grips my heart now and then when I think as a realist. Thus, I will write believing that neither of you three have to read this letter.

I do not know in which year you are reading this, but in this year we still follow the calendar from Earth. My code states the nature of my job, date of birth (31-12-2107), genetic origin, family history and biological sex (M). I guess if the archives have survived when you are reading this, you will eventually find every trivia or data about me from my number.

My parents came to this colony soon after they got married at earth which makes me a second generation immigrant (#2). My father was a systems engineer for cyborg research and development while my mother an “extraterrestrial agriculture specialist”. When I decided to be a cyborg soldier, I was the odd one out in my family. Even my grandfather who I never got to see was a computer scientist on earth. I only heard about him from my father. I was born and raised in this colony. We all have registration ids, we live by the rules, life is tough but the sole aim is to survive and expand the humanity’s purpose. We are taught right from the beginning that there is no ‘I’, it is just ‘We’. Immigrants like my parents were taken in on the basis of decisions made through algorithms. Our mating partners are decided based on our genetic data (IDA), job, ethnicity, physiological parameters, etc. using algorithms. This is how I met Jenny, we didn’t really get to know each other rather we were chosen by the system once we expressed our interest in making a family. My previous job kept me out most of the times so we never grew too close. I was a soldier but right now I am a mercenary for a company (Exl) after my retirement so I take up security contracts. Two years before, I had thought that my retirement would give me more time to spend with my family, we would grow close, and I would feel a little more at peace but guess I was wrong. You might be intrigued about why there was ever a need for an army on Mars. You see, I believe, humans may wander anywhere but there is no escape from self. This age is of data and cybernetics. Cybernetics has given the humans eternal life. When the first settlers came, they established giant data centers, this was supposed to be the perfect world, a stepping stone for humanity to expand and claim the cosmos. Everybody was chipped in the neck, their identities were just a set of characters, and they lived like ants working together for a bigger cause. Things went well initially but as I said there is no escape from self, soon, a group of people rebelled who didn’t want to obey these algorithms made by a few men. They want to seize control, and so they devised what we now know as ‘soul-virus’. This malware fiddles with the chip and causes it to blur the identity of the infected person by disrupting neural pathways. Existential dread becomes too harsh to bear for a mind without an identity. These people become hungry to truly discover who they are and the virus is designed to prevent it from happening. They bite the healthy individuals. They bite and tear out their chips from the neck, killing them and use its data to feed into their own system. The virus takes some parts of the victims’ identity and fills the puzzle, giving the infected person a sense that his or her identity is now a step closer to be completed. This increases their thirst for more data and they keep harvesting more and more data. It is all about the illusion that virus is creating for the mind. With mind hacked, their reflexes are improved. The extra and quick surges of electricity needed to make this happen come from the chip but it deteriorates their bodies so they keep replacing those parts with machines. The ones who were first infected in labs were modified heavily to become more machine than human through cybernetics. These ones are called the first borns and are the most powerful and hardest to kill. The modus operandi resembles to what my father read in his childhood comics as ‘Vampires’. We call them ‘Vampires’ only even though nobody knows if the original blood-suckers ever existed or not. As the vampires grew and spread chaos through the colony, an army was raised to hunt them. I joined this army but took an early retirement even though colony lives under the fear of these devils, to take care of my family. Recently, stronger vamps have come up. They have modified canines which can hack into the victims chip, infecting them with virus while retrieving their data without killing the victim. The only way to kill them is to remove their heads or to destroy the chips. I have killed many vamps in my career but it seems there is an endless evil and they just keep increasing. This war seems like a lost cause to some but we fight nonetheless.

The ‘soul-virus’ creation brought some positive things though, it highlighted the need for humans to have some sense of self-identity too instead of just a collective identity. So, the algorithms were made less constrained following its creation like we were allowed to have names again instead of registration IDs. We could choose our careers more freely than before. There have been a few publications/theories now which treat ‘soul-virus’ in this light. At this time, the horns of two powers are crossed, the outcome of this war is held in the folds of future. Both fighting to take control and be the leaders in their own way. If one truly sees, it is just lust for power. Whoever wins, the cake will be shared by a few only.

Leaving that, how ironic that I gave up my job for my family but this new job is taking me away from them. This contract pays me really well, the insurance on me is enough to keep my family comfortable and safe even if I don’t return so I took it. I guess, this is the least and most genuine thing I can do for them. Jenny was against this. I tried to convince her that if I return we will have so much money that we need not do anything for the rest of our lives but she thinks this is just my attempt to get away from this sick world. I tried to reason with Jenny but she says that if I am so sure of my return then why I can’t take them along. I have to laugh it off. She says that this attempt of mine, of trading myself for the huge money is a deplorable attempt to feel less guilty about my escapism.

She accuses me of being selfish and of disrespecting the society by breaking away from the social fabric of family. She says that in her heart she knows that I will not return and that I am a coward for leaving her alone in this world with Carlij and Gina.

She reminds me about their well-being but I believe Carlij and Gina will get by fine even without me in this colony, there are structures in place to guard them given we have money to access them. This tells us how shackles have a few advantages if you see, a slave need only fear his or her master. The master protects it from everything else once it accepts a life of servitude.

In the last few days, she has even tried to talk to my parents so that they can convince me otherwise but I guess it was a poor attempt because I stopped listening to them the day I decided to become a soldier instead of taking up a job considered as elite and civilized in their social circle. Jenny’s accusations of escapism do not hold water because there is no escape from self, all I can escape from are the artificial shackles of this society. Last night she broke down and started to blame herself for being unable to stop me from going. I told her how she couldn’t be farther from truth. I have known her as a good person, she is not the one to blame. I know it will be a tough time for Carlij and Gina, I will miss them too. As for about what I think about this expedition. I am doing this because I have seen the illusive nature of life in these shackles. I haven’t felt as being a part of the colony in a long time but that is just me I guess but then I hope to find some answers. I think sometimes that the only answer is that we all were here for eternity and we all will be here in this universe for eternity. We are all made from the same matter that has always existed here. We are the universe and at the same time a part of it, just a few atoms dancing around for who knows what, who knows till when. I think we are not even meant to know and I accept it as it is. I am skeptic about those who say that universe speaks to them, I think it is just their mind and inflated ego talking. Universe is silent, when we are it and it is we, why will it talk to self and that too with such an insignificant self. Do we ever talk to our mitochondria? Anyways, I will leave in two days. It is already dawn. I should probably just go to my quarter and spend these last hours with them and be prepared to leave what could be my last impression on this colony. -Geff

script ends

Comments: While the information obtained about the creation of ‘soul-virus’ is crucial. We are hopeful that this has brought us a step-closer to finding its cure. Some analysts are arguing that the mindset of the subject referred here as Geff, is reflective of symptoms of this virus. Therefore, it is possible that some dormant strain of this virus had infiltrated the main chip manufacturing facility of the colony and several people like Geff grew with it in their system. These walking time-bombs, waiting to go haywire and nearly impossible to detect could have been the precursors to events that finally lead to instability in the colony and thus, annihilation of it. This discovery lays further emphasis on the need to discover the destroyed data center and chip manufacturing facility. -Trainee 11QU56

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