The Special Power of Human Intelligence: Prediction and Steering

A Divine Game of Species

• 💡 Biological life on Earth is imagined as a game between gods, each sponsoring a family of species.
• 🐅 Gods like the tiger god and redwood god competed for dominion over the planet, with life forms roaming below.

The Hominid God's Bold Claim

• 🧠 An obscure ape god claimed victory for hominids, asserting their brain would be the decisive factor.
• ⚠️ Skeptics like the scorpion god and smallpox god questioned the brain's effectiveness against physical threats or diseases.
• 🚀 The redwood god doubted humans could reach orbit without evolving specialized metabolisms for rocket fuel or physical adaptations.

Uniquely Human Capabilities

• 🔥 Humans, despite lacking specialized physical traits, rapidly achieved feats like taming fire, building farms, and landing on the moon.
• 🛠️ Unlike other species with genetically wired skills, humans learn to build and create complex technologies like power plants and space rockets.
• 🧠 This ability stems from intelligence, allowing humans to observe, try, remember, generalize, and achieve without genetic pre-programming.

The Nature of Human Intelligence

• 🔬 Human brains can learn wider-ranging paths through a larger cross-section of reality than any other animal.
• 💡 Intelligence is defined by two fundamental types of work: predicting the world and steering it.
• 🔮 Prediction involves guessing what will be seen, heard, or touched before sensing it.