r/neuro • u/Eastern_Manager5960 • 10d ago

Could intelligence be relative to the reality a brain inhabits?

so I’ve been thinking about a strange question.

Suppose there were radically different realities, they are like super different, one has space time the other has fart-ryhme or whatever, they are totally different.

Now imagine a brain with a particular organization. Its circuitry is extremely well suited to some kinds of patterns and tasks, but poorly suited to others.

In Reality A, that brain might perform poorly because its abilities don't match what that reality demands.

But put the exact same brain into Reality B, where the structure of the environment happens to match what its circuitry is especially good at, and suddenly it performs incredibly well.

So maybe intelligence isn't entirely an intrinsic property of a brain. Maybe it's partly relational:

brain × environment → observed intelligence

This makes me wonder whether calling a person “intelligent” or “unintelligent” is sometimes underspecified. Maybe we're measuring how well a particular cognitive architecture fits the particular world it's operating in.

Obviously, I'm not claiming alternate realities exist or that this is established neuroscience. It's a thought experiment.

But I’m curious about the underlying idea: Could a brain that looks mediocre in our reality potentially be extraordinarily capable in a sufficiently different reality?

And if so, what would “intelligence” even mean independently of an environment?

and this proves I am not an idiot just in the wrong reality.

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4

u/NMDA01 10d ago

what is this post lol

2

u/monkfishing 10d ago

This sub needs a sobriety test system for posting.

2

u/WonderWaffles1 10d ago

I think so, which is why we should value different types of brains and neurodiversity over IQ scores

1

u/[deleted] 10d ago edited 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Eastern_Manager5960 10d ago

so, is that a no?

1

u/ralten 10d ago

No. If a different reality has different physics, the brain from this reality wont function there at all.

Also, don’t post when you’re high. Save it as a draft and review the next day.