How do humans acquire intelligence?

Drafted 1988 published 2000 revised Jan 2012

When I was conceptualizing the Theory on Information Materialization, some of the basic research questions that came into my mind were - if a prehistoric son of a caveman is placed immediately at birth inside a box, a standard room with six walls as his only surroundings, forbidden to interact ever with the outside world, and never allowed to see anyone or hear anything throughout the rest of his life -  will he be able to acquire information, will he be able to understand this information, and will he able to develop consciousness and intelligence?

The Caveman in the Box is a thought experiment. It is a scientific model that illustrates the origin, creation and evolution of information. This newborn son of a caveman, named Gog, was kept inside a well designed fully automated experimental room where food, water, and everything he needs for survival, growth and development were all provided. He will never be allowed ever to see anyone or hear anything in his entire life. He will totally be isolated entirely from the world from birth to adulthood inside this "box".

Parallel to this same scenario is another box. The box of his father. Gog's father, the first human on earth, was also born inside a box. His father was also confined from the same environment from birth to adulthood. However, the only difference between these two boxes is that his father's box was the natural world.

From these two simple thought  experiments, we might ask ourselves: who among the two men will gain more information? Who will never acquire any information at all? Will Gog be aware of himself? Will he be aware of his surrounding? Will he figure out that he is alive? Will he understand the things surrounding him? How? How many words will he acquire? If words are not explained to him, how will he know them? Will his mind stays empty for the rest of his life? Will he be conscious of his environment? Will instinct kicks in? If instinct is inborn, what are these instinct? How these instincts developed in the first place? Will he eat his poo and drink his pee? Will he still stay and act like a baby through out his adulthood?

By Analyzing the model, the information Gog will acquire from birth to adulthood will only be confined among the following objects: the six walls, his food and his body. However, these things will never be known and understood if no one will tell him what are these objects. He might eventually discover his nose, his ears, his tongue or whatever he has on his body, but it doesn't mean he will understand what these things are since he doesn't have any previous clues or knowledge of them. The illustration also corrects the misconception that a baby's brain always comes with information already installed before birth or that instinct comes along with the baby from birth. His brain is actually totally empty at birth with information - a clean blank slate. And this emptiness will remain even as he reached adulthood.

The caveman in the box experiment also raises another two important issues: Awareness and Consciousness. When we talk of awareness, there are two important factors that must be considered: Perception and Reaction. If we perceive something but we don't react on it then we are not aware of what perceive. When we react to something but we don't perceive it then we are not aware of it. Gog, the primitive baby in the thought experiment has a mind, a heart and a body just like everyone. He might bumps his head accidentally several times against the walls and hurts his brain, but because his mind has not been trained to understand things, he is not aware of them. This is the same as a housefly who bumps repeatedly itself several times against a glass-door trying get out to the outside world but doesn't have even a single clue when a glass-door is open or blocking his way. These examples suggest that perception and reaction play an important role in Awareness.

Furthermore, what if we "shut down" all Gog's sensory organs, will awareness emerge? Does he need to see, feel, hear, smell, taste before he will understand his environment? Does he need to be aware of his surroundings first before he becomes aware of himself? Does this mean he needs to learn the outside world before he will understand his inside world? Will he discover language or even numbers? Will he brand some form of attitudes or behaviors? Or, will he just be an object without emotions, intelligence, and life?

 (Excerpt: Originemology )





 ================================================================== "Humans cannot create what Nature can create and vice-versa."

~ Joey Lawsin

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NOTICE: Articles on this site are composed on random thoughts. The transcript may not be in its final form. It maybe edited, updated or even revised in the future based on the outcomes of  the author's experiments.

Public Domain Notice: Copyright (c) 2000. All rights reserved. This article is part of a book entitled Biotronics: The Silver Species. Copies are welcome to be shared or distributed publicly as long proper citations are observed. Please cite as follows: The Biotronics Project, Joey Lawsin, 1988, USA.

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