Hello Supermind

From Aristotle to AI and Beyond

Movies like Limitless show-off one of science fiction’s coolest storylines — the idea of human super-intelligence. But the idea is hardly new. In fact, it’s been around for more than 2500 years.

The ancient Greeks — Plato, Aristotle and other sages— spoke of super-intelligence using the Greek word nous. Often translated as inspiration or intuition, nous was a “state of knowing” (ideas, facts, truths — anything) that was truer than logic itself.

Super-intelligence (i.e. supermind) wasn’t only a Greek idea. The Romans worshiped it as a divine virtue. Scholars of the Islamic Golden Age named it aql. In the Indian tradition it was buddhi.

In those times, crossovers of science, religion and mythology were normal. So in the New Testament, you find it written that only those with nous could truly understand the scriptures.

In all these contexts, supermind was presented as the ability to know and understand just about anything. It was like a blueprint for AI. Except it was for humans.

Modern science is interested. Daniel Kahneman’s “fast thinking”—or intuition — is a flawed form of supermind. Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, “the power of thinking without thinking,” is the same. Both conceptions present intuition as an unconscious, bias-prone activity.

Supermind, by contrast, is highly conscious and bias-free.

How is this possible?

A preparation for supermind involves a systematic cleansing of biases, belief systems, and emotional barriers. Precisely, it’s our distorted vision of the world, our repetitive thoughts, patterns and behaviors which divide us from states of higher knowing. Which block out reality. Which form a barrier between ourselves and truth.

Supermind is made of two main ideas. First, intelligence is modular — that means it’s a set of defined skills, functions or abilities, rather than a vague abstraction or unknowable display of genius. Second, it’s learnable, trainable and teachable. We’re not merely born gifted or remedial. Genius can be trained.

Functions of supermind thinking include: recognition, content, mobility and speed.

Recognition means pattern recognition, seeing the big picture, the forest from the trees. Recognition helps us say what something is — we understand the whole and not just the parts. Content is the facets or qualities of something. We say a picture is worth a thousand words — so when examining anything, content is the “thousand words” that describe it. Mobility is the capacity to move from idea to idea. Speed is how fast it all happens.

Think of those we call genius. What do they do? They fly from idea to idea at a blistering pace, with depth of knowledge and the agility to pause or change direction in an instant.

Genius can be overwhelming to us. That’s why we often don’t see the mechanisms of how genius works. In reality, these people are simply highly skilled at recognition, content, mobility and speed.

Our intelligence is a race-car in waiting, when not throttled by cycles of repetitive thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Dedicated thinking tools help “cut through the haze” — making our process of understanding more efficient. Techniques of noise-filtering can aid pattern recognition and content discovery. Thoughts and ideas can be chunked (or packed) for faster processing.

The idea of intelligence as an ability makes for interesting conclusions. One is that intelligence can be switched on and off at will. Olympic sprinters have the ability to run very fast — yet aren’t always doing so. Likewise with intelligence. We can be very smart when necessary, once we’ve learned to operationalize our own intelligence.

Genius-like ability isn’t just a numbers game of computational power. At its core, understanding just feels good. In a moment, our world is widened. A realm of existence previously dark becomes illuminated. Another piece of mystery becomes known.

It’s important to note that “a-ha” moments (the light bulb effect) don’t just happen when we find a new fact on the Internet. Rather, discovery is the unique by-product of our mind’s own activity — the moment when our thinking connects two previously unconnected concepts. Facts are fuel for this, but the engine is our own mind.

Science fiction is always giving us new and smarter heroes. But we can be heroes ourselves. We can learn to consciously tap our own intelligence. Supermind has been around for more than 2500 years.

Perhaps its time has come.

A version of this article appeared in the 3.2015 issue of Mensa World Journal