• kryptonite@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    humans just put certain expectations into the word.

    … which is entirely the way words work to convey ideas. If a word is being used to mean something other than the audience understands it to mean, communication has failed.

    By the common definition, it’s not “intelligence”. If some specialized definition is being used, then that needs to be established and generally agreed upon.

    • Farid@startrek.website
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      1 month ago

      I would put it differently. Sometimes words have two meanings, for example a layman’s understanding of it and a specialist’s understanding of the same word, which might mean something adjacent, but still different. For instance, the word “theory” in everyday language often means a guess or speculation, while in science, a “theory” is a well-substantiated explanation based on evidence.

      Similarly, when a cognitive scientist talks about “intelligence”, they might be referring to something quite different from what a layperson understands by the term.