Christopher Langan's challenge

I was listening to an interview of Christopher Langan on youtube, and I must say that he has some very interesting ideas. I am in total agreement with him as to redefining and reshaping what it means to be human. I am saddened by the view of man that is prevalent in modern society as a consumer who only exists for toil and amusement. This idea of man needs to be overcome. I am also in agreement with the idea that we need to develop a more advanced ethic. I will go into this in a later article, possibly the next one, so I will halt on developing this concept of an advanced ethic. What I want to focus on in this posting is his challenge of intelligence. He states very clearly, that if someone states that they are more intelligent than him, he would like them to present their view of reality. He would ask the other person how sophisticated a picture of reality he developed, all of what he was holding in his mind simultaneously, and what he could construct with these ideas. The question then arises, am I capable of understanding his view of reality, and he is he capable of understanding mine. I also believe that implicit in this challenge of sophistication is not just complexity, but also consistency, since an inconsistent outlook of reality is not the hallmark of great intelligence, no matter how many grand ideas are thrown out. All of what a person is able to hold in his mind must be coupled with the ability to develop them consistently. I like this challenge. This is how I will approach people in determining their intelligence. I would like to know their picture of reality. I would like to know their metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, theory of aesthetics, politics, economics, existential outlook, scientific outlook, etc.. You tell me yours, and I will tell you mine. Let us see who has a more sophisticated outlook.

I would like to state what I believe to be his argument. To use a computer analogy, he sees intelligence as the amount of human RAM and the quality of the human operating system. Imagine a computer that can run a multitude of applications that are very advanced versus a computer that can only run a couple, and has an operating system that cannot handle some of the more advanced programs. To apply this back to the human level, the simple tasks that involve normal everyday activity that make you functional in society do not require an “advanced computer”, but having a sophisticated view of reality does.