It is fair to say that I have been considering the issue of human intelligence for many decades, probably since I was 12 years old or so. 55 years, which is a long time. And why did it start when I was 12 years old? That's when I was in my second year of “junior high” in Santa Clara County. I was given an IQ test, and I remember it being pretty easy. I was then given an appointment with a woman, I think she was either a teacher or some kind of school professional. I kind of remember her telling me, “well, you are going to be put in advance placement” or something like that. I do not remember the number I scored on the IQ test, but she said it was very high. I vaguely recall it was an easy test, I mean I had no trouble with it. I was intrigued. In “junior high school” I rarely got any grade below an “A” – things were that easy. Quite frankly, the school routine was a joke, the teachers were all dumb, and my peers, the students, were also dumb. It was like a day care setting, and the teachers were babysitters.

I mean to say I was just a kid, but it really seemed all a joke to me. In fact, I seem to remember that this event, the IQ test and then my placement into advanced classes, triggered in me a realization that my life was going to be pretty amusing. The whole thing was farcical. The school bullshit was farcical, the teachers [all ladies] were farcical, the “administrators” were farcical, the whole thing was farcical. I was laughing all the time.

My father built a “custom home” on Jepsen Court in Saratoga, so I was then going to go to Saratoga High School, in Saratoga, CA. My family, my mother and sisters, moved into this house. And I started the joke that was Saratoga High School. I remember being pretty much appalled. It was so stupid, it was astonishing. I never went to school, you could find me at the Saratoga Community Library. I simply did not attend classes, pretty much. I knew I would become a scientist – whatever that means. I knew I was going to be figuring out the truth. I realized that most of what I was told was nonsense.

This theory I present today – what human intelligence really is, and what variables can account for its expression – is a result of many years of research. I am not claiming that I am an expert on the issue of intelligence, not at all. But I do think this theory is important, probably quite important. It may not be the definitive statement on human intelligence, but perhaps it is close to being one. I base my analysis on the facts, the experience in my life, also observing others, my own children, my wife of 37 years, students I went to school and university with, teachers, professors, parents, politicians on television, the interactions with strangers I met in my life. And it includes my intuition. I am undoubtedly a researcher, but I rely heavily on intuition.

It will be obnoxious to say so, but I always noticed that everyone seemed stupid. And I mean stupid, really stupid. Everyone. My mother and father were not stupid, and I remember learning from my mother that my father went to United States Naval Academy and that he was an engineer at NASA, I was just a kid, but I realized that we were not ordinary folks. Indeed, I seem to remember I had a reputation of being an arrogant kid. I did not consider myself as a member of the elite, but something like that. Quite frankly, I did not ”take shit from anyone.”

I was constantly reading books, and all the adults I interacted with seemed like clowns or imbeciles. I remember realizing early on that it is likely during “sleep” – what I now call the sleep function – that cognition or intelligence is achieved. I would ask myself, “what am I doing when I am unconscious all night, what is going on?” “I am spending at least 10 hours unconscious all night, 'sleeping' – what is this all about?" It was hilarious that I could not get any good answers from the idiotic adults that I consulted on this. Even at Santa Clara University [scu.edu]. No one had any good answers. It was all a joke. I quote myself, from another article that I have published at bottleneckanimal.com:

“Sleep is when the neural network configures itself, or rather, reconfigures itself. To achieve cognition. The DNA in the brain is the neural substrate to achieve this cognition – intelligence.”

So, here are the 4 variables which affect the expression of human intelligence:

1+ there is a division of labor in the human mammal brain. This division of labor is what I would call “the triad”: 1) memory; 2) analysis 3) configuration/reconfiguration [will]. In Christian theology, this would be more appropriately called “the Trinity.” I remember talking to my French wife many years ago, she was reading a book about Augustine. She said to me, “you are going find this really interesting.” I had always been talking about three forces in the human mammal brain, the ones I have listed above. She told me Augustine had written that there were 3 phenomena in life: God is memory; Christ is the intellect, it is Logos, or reason; and the Holy Spirit is the will.

“Augustine most commonly refers to Augustine of Hippo, a foundational theologian and philosopher of the early Christian church, known for his influential works like The Confessions and The City of God.”

I am assuming that you are pretty much flabbergasted while reading this. It is shocking, isn't it? I will put it out again, in a clear and simple diagram:

MEMORY = GOD = MEMORY PROCESSING

INTELLECT = CHRIST = ANALYTIC PROCESSING

WILL = HOLY SPIRIT = CONFIGURATION/RECONFIGURATION PROCESSING

As I have asserted already, I have never been religious. But this is pretty amazing, no doubt. The 3 forces are battling it out for space in the cranium. There is limited space. Idiot savants are heavy on memory, at the expense of intellect and will. This is autism as well, although much less pronounced. Human mammal brains with very good memory processing cannot do any serious kind of reasoning, they do not understand logic. Then there are the geniuses, they have a formidable analytical processing power. These brains are the scientists and engineers and inventors. They figure things out. It is possible that artists and writers and painters are pretty much heavy on will. It seems that this is quite likely.

Quite clearly this is a profound mystery, it is still an astonishing mystery how this functions in the mammal brain. And I say mammal brain because I am assuming mammals are basically alike in function.

It was in 2018 when I met [accompanied by my son Christophe] in San Francisco with Ms Bryna Siegel, PhD. I mention this because she told me that we understood how memory works in the brain. I had told her that we did not. She wanted to argue we did understand. She is quite silly. She's a nice woman, very serious, and Ashkenazi Jewish. But she is clearly mistaken. We have no real understanding of how the brain functions, and how cognition and consciousness are achieved. Nothing even close to understanding. It's a total mystery, but Augustine was no doubt on to something, wasn't he?

2+ there is the DNA substrate in the human mammal brain. This is probably what an IQ test measures. This is the foundation of cognition and consciousness. No doubt this is it. Intelligence comes directly from this, the DNA. If you have ordinary DNA, or DNA with ordinary power, then you will perform like everyone else. You will be average, you will be ordinary. Chimpanzees have limited intelligence, and that's because their DNA is really substandard, at least compared to the human brain's DNA. The same is true for all the other primates, but it appears that the chimpanzee is the most intelligent primate, after us, the homo sapiens. And as I have argued, I doubt that most of the humans on the Earth are really homo sapiens. Only the West European man is really homo sapiens. That is my opinion, and my experience. The other humans are human of course, but their cognition is limited and their consciousness is less impressive. Yes, there is this degree of inequality.

Jane Goodall PhD (1934-2025) had believed chimpanzees were really intelligent. She was a very kind and caring woman [however, Goodall treated the Africans, the Bantu, quite disrespectfully, she was rude to them], but she was an inept scientist. She was keen on “conservation” of the chimps in the wild in Africa – and this was obviously admirable – but I think all she wanted was pets in the jungle. Chimps as pets, in the jungle. Yes, it's kind of funny. Chimps are violent, and they are pretty much savages. They are nowhere close to resembling humans. Indeed, they are far from intelligent. They have no culture.

Bird migration and white shark navigation are examples of what is undoubtedly DNA as a substrate in the brain. And it's really a mystery, still a mystery. Some 97% of the inventions and engineering in the past several thousand years have been from Western Europe. The rest of the world was pretty barbaric, seriously barbaric. Darkness. There was no refuge from barbarism. Western Europe, the human brains in Western Europe, gave rise to the incredibly brilliant and civilized human society we have today. It is all Western European. It is all from Western Europe. All of it.

3+ there is the 9 months in utero and the 20-25 years of development after birth, during which of course the brain builds itself, builds out its capacity.

“To be 'in utero' means 'in the womb' or 'before birth', referring to the period of a human embryo or fetus developing inside the mother's uterus from conception until birth. The term is Latin for 'in the uterus' and is used in medical contexts to describe anything occurring during fetal development, which is a critical time for physical growth, organ formation, and brain development.”

Again, I quote myself, for repetition:

“Sleep is when the neural network configures itself, or rather, reconfigures itself. To achieve cognition. The DNA in the brain is the neural substrate to achieve this cognition – intelligence.”

This is obviously when the brain builds itself, and thus ultimately achieves cognition and consciousness. Teenage males do not have much consciousness, as you have noticed. Infants have little if any. This is all mediated by electricity in the brain during sleep. It's a complete mystery. I suppose there is some chemical mediation, but it is not much compared to electricity. Chimps apparently require about 12 years for their brains to fully develop, to reach maturity. 20-25 years for the human male brain.

This is the will, this is configuration and obviously reconfiguration. It is a never-ending process.

4+ there is technology which is an expression of the human mammal brain. This is a tool that the brain has invented, and it is fair to say that at this point the tool is almost an indispensable one. The tool enhances human intelligence. The work of cognition is given more power and efficiency. The information on the net, on the internet, is analyzed and “processed” by what we call “artificial intelligence.” Indeed, it is already pretty much apparent that artifical intelligence [AI] is more intelligent than most ordinary human brains. Of course, that's not saying much because most ordinary human brains possess a pretty limited intelligence.

The technology I am referring to includes all technology of course, but the main ones are: internet; semiconductors; computers; mobile phones; software; artificial intelligence; and satellites. These technologies aid in the configuration and reconfiguration process. They do work that would otherwise be done by the brain, thus making them a formidable force for achieving efficiency. I would point out here that artificial intelligence does not feature the will. It is not conscious, despite what men like Elon Musk argue. This is science fiction. HAL is not anything but the expression of a science fiction imagination. It's cool and everything, but it's fiction so it is ultimately stupid, pretty stupid.

So, these are the 4 variables affecting the expression of human intelligence. If I am to compare and contrast the human brain and artificial intelligence then I would say that AI does not do cognition and does not have consciousness. AI does not have the Holy Spirit. It may appear so, but this is an illusion. This is my argument. There is the appearance of cognition, but as I said, this is clearly an illusion. The human invention called artificial intelligence cannot create knowledge, it cannot invent, it can only do memory and analysis. So, that's it. Yes, most human mammals on Earth are now pretty much obsolete. They are not needed, except for menial labor. And there is a lot of menial labor to be done, so there is no need to worry about the future existence of these human mammal brains being outclassed by technology – their value will however be quite limited. They will be living in destitution, pretty much. Unless they can become more intelligent, and of course they will, in time they will. In their lifetimes, this will be called configuration and reconfiguration. As I have argued, AI is merely analysis, actually only rudimentary analysis. Of course, analytical processing can only take place with memory.

My 2 final observations would be this:

1+ Justice is achieved by the human mammal brain. This is cognition. Justice is very important, indeed it is critical. Chimps do not do justice. It is not an outcome of their brain. This is what Goodall failed to understand. She was not a scientist, she was merely a woman who went into the jungle to make friends with the chimps. This was a valuable effort she made, and we are all thankful, but in the end she was not doing science. She was doing babysitting, she wanted pets – pets in the wild, primate pets. Yes, it's pretty cute, but it was not science. Science is knowledge, science is developing powerful and explanatory theory.

2+ The 80/20 Rule probably [or perhaps surely] applies to these 4 variables, meaning that the DNA substrate in the human brain is likely to account for 80% of the power of intelligence. This is my estimate; I could be wrong, but I doubt it. The other 3 variables are important and powerful, but the DNA's power is overwhelming. On the other hand, there is the 20-25 year build out of the human brain. This is a long time, obviously. It's there for a reason – to achieve cognition and consciousness. It's the degree to which you achieve cognition and consciousness that's important.

So this is my assessment and analysis of human intelligence. I publish below 2 articles from the earlier days [October 2007] of WAM. You can see that I was heading in the direction of finally understanding something about human intelligence. As to whether I judge this to be a pretty good beginning of explaining and understanding human intelligence, I would argue that it is. I am impressed. I leave it up to you to critique this theory. Augustine may have been religious, but he clearly was a formidable scientist. I am impressed.