1. I hate spiderman's distinction between intelligent and smart. They are synonymous. He calls "smart" being how much knowledge you have. No, that is called "educated" or "learned." Smart means intelligent.
2. Intelligence is (1) the ability to learn; and (2) the ability to apply the learning. Some one else said it before, and I'm agreeing. I subsume memory into the ability to learn, which can include processes AND facts, though it may be possible to separate memory out as something different from intelligence. Hell, we make up the word and definition so we can define it however we wish. But I think either way this is pretty much the normally used and useful def. of intelligence.
3. I think it is abyssmal that people are so afraid of being perceived as not "intelligent" that they try to bend and twist and broaden the definition of intelligent so that they are covered.
An person who just can't grasp calculus or learn another language or write a quality essay... This person is not intelligent. But if they are good with people they would say that they are intelligent, they have relationship intelligence...I think there is a better phrase for it that I just cannot think of now. Is it so hard for some one to say "I'm not intelligent but I have people skills" rather than saying, "I'm intelligent, your tests just don't cover the way that I'm intelligent, which is in dealing with real people not book smarts."
Continuing in this manner, we will no doubt soon need to qualify that intelligence can be book smarts, people skills, or even physical attractiveness ("I have 'look smarts'").
In this manner, intelligence gets watered down to apply to any positive attribute. How weak. Instead of saying, "We are all smart in our own way, some of us have book smarts, some of us have artistic intelligence, some of us have communicative intelligence, some of us are smart about people, some of us have look smarts" can't we say, "We are all special in our own way, some of us are smart, some of us are artistic, some of us are articulate, some of us are personable, some of us are attractive."
Nope, everyone wants to be smart. That is dumb.
And at first I thought Ratamattata... was on to something with intelligence and humor going together. I guess I still do, but I would limit it in that I think there may be forms of humor that "dumb" people tell and which amuses other "dumb" people. I mean, some fart jokes for example. Anyway, I'm not sure EVERY successful comedian was necessarily smart, but I think the ones that were probably had the most staying power and made their own careers. Steve Martin is probably very intelligent, as is Michael Myers. I'm not so sure, though, about CarrotTop.
~psychoblast~