without Hands no Intelligence

Summary

So far, there is no uniform definition of what intelligence is. Here a theory F is launched that makes it clear what intelligence is and how it works. This theory is not based on an examination of the functioning of the brain but on how animals and people behave as a result of the intelligence as formulated by the theory F. There is a study on observed behaviour of chimpanzees, living in the wild. With this theory an explanation is given as to how this behaviour originated.

Introduction

Intelligence is a property of people that enables them to solve problems. For this solving the brain is put to work, we call this thinking. "Something" happens in the brain so we find the solution after a while. A lot of research has been committed as to how that works inside the brain, which has resulted in a lot of knowledge about this subject. I have also looked into what intelligence actually is and followed a completely different path doing so. I did not look at the brain but at what intelligent thinking brings forth to behaviour within animals and humans.

This lead to a theory about the origin and operation of intelligence, described in a book in the Dutch language: zonder Handen geen Intelligentie (without Hands no Intelligence).

In anticipation of the edition of the book, I will outline the principles of how intelligence works according to me in this article. Subsequently I will start with applying these principles to the chimp and its predecessors living in the African jungles. This latter point is important because the chimpanzee in the zoo leads a completely different way of life. Note that the chimp is a very special animal. Not only because of its sophisticated lifestyle but also because human beings and this animal have a common ancestor that looked very much like the chimpanzee. He thereby somewhat fulfills the role of our ancestor of 6 million years ago.

Picture Story

The following Picture Story gives answers to questions such as: Genesis or origin of intelligence, what is intelligence, and how does intelligence work. Or in other words: what makes humans different from animals.

transferring a message
1 - Most animals also have intelligence but much less than humans.
For example: to transfer a message a lion urinates on a bush; we place a no entry sign.

2 - A lot of research has been done to find out how our brains operate when thinking intelligently.
Still there is not even a general agreement of what intelligence is. It is difficult if you do not know what to look for.

replace research with imagination
3 - Usually scientific research is applied to find an answer to a question about a phenomena.
People sometimes use their imagination to solve a problem and see how it works. I did the same and replaced research with imagination.

4 - My imagination says: Intelligence is the power of the brain to create a new manipulation which is advantageous to the manipulator .
Manipulation here is : processing objects and matter and not misleading anybody.

intelligence creates a better manipulation
5 - Example: you see our distant predecessor eating fruits.
On the left he is still biting the fruits from the branches. But he developed holding devices which enabled him to pick the fruits. His intelligence created a new manipulation so he could reach fruits too far away from his mouth.

manipulation is the core of the theory
6 - Manipulation is the core of my theory.
Why manipulation and not speech or social behaviour?
Manipulation brought us a highly developed society. The chimp on the left could already crush a note with a rock, mankind made the wheel and attached parts with bolts and nuts. Language and social behavior made it possible to perfect the manipulations to high standards, but no more than that.

when a new property means better survival it will remain as a new property
7 - How did an animal become intelligent?
A child does not always inherit exactly the same genes as his parents. Sometimes a gene deviates during copying, we call this a mutation. A gene defines a property.
When a new property means better survival it will remain as a new property. In this way intelligence originated for animals as an inheritable property.

8 - The initial intelligence had a limit for inventing new manipulations. This is part of the intelligence theory F.
See intelligence as a bottle containing manipulations. Manipulations were added as a result of intelligence.
But a bottle has a limited content. No more new manipulations could be added to a full bottle.

9 - When the bottle was full, a new mutation could enlarge the bottle. Now the creation of new manipulations could be continued until either the manipulation power was exhausted or the bottle was full again.

10 - Now another look. The mutation which generated intelligence occurred to all animals from the moment they existed. All animals have the power to create new manipulations, whether it is a fish, bird or snake, it does not matter. But see how this works out.

lifelines of a fish, bird and a chimpanzee
11 - Each specie of animals has his own history in evolving him from embryonic stem cell to the present state. During that evolution his bottle grew (read intelligence) pending his capacity to manipulate.

12 - A few examples.
A deer can scrape snow to reach grass, lick off a new born calf, tear grass to eat but not much more. He does not have the attributes to create any more new manipulations. His bottle stayed very small.

a robin can build an unbelievable ingenious bowl
13 - A robin, the bird with the red breast, performs better. He can build an unbelievable ingenious nest with braches and straws requiring many different manipulations with his bill and body only. A human hand can hardly imitate this. But a robin does it, but not much more.

a jackdaw is famous for his cleverness
14 - A jackdaw, the smaller nephew of the crow, is better still, he has strong bill and claws which can grasp, he opens nuts. He can hoist a fat-ball suspended on a rope. He is famous for his cleverness.

the chimpanzee is the champion among the animals
15 - But the champion among the animals is the chimpanzee. He uses rocks, sticks and straws as a tool because his hands enable him to do so. He crushes a nut with a rock and fishes ants out of their nest with a straw.

16 - But the best manipulator in the world is us, because our hands are able to perform an almost unlimited variation of manipulations. We can split wood requiring much force but also place a thread through the eye of a needle requiring delicate manoeuvering.

17 - If we consolidate the examples and put the bottles together, we can conclude that the more an animal can manipulate the more his bottle could evolve to a higher size.
That is why animals differ in intelligence and why mankind exceeds all animals in intelligence.

Anaxagoras (500-428 BC)
18 - The Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, who lived long before Christ (500-428 BC), already saw a similarity between body shape and intelligence.
A few authors of this time also assume the hands shape our brain.

Today you are a witness of the birth of a new theory. A theory that explains exactly what intelligence is and how the hands were the facilitator of our intelligence. This is completely new to the theory behind intelligence.

Now you have got to know the basic concepts of theory F. They answer questions such as: (4) What is intelligence; (5) How does intelligence operate; (7) How did intelligence arise and (17) Why are we different from an animal.
There is still the concept of arsenal to be added. It is the total number of manipulations which an animal has.
That number is also a measure of his intelligence (17).
This designation is called: IN (Intelligence Number).

Intelligence in action

Intelligence, as defined by theory F, will be tested on the chimp living in the wild, starting with 2 examples.

A chimpanzee discovers an opening in a tree where bees fly in and out. He knows from experience that inside something deliciously sweet is present. He sticks his finger in and reaches the honeycomb and manages to finger honey out of it. But on one occasion the comb was too deep to reach with his finger. Now his intelligence comes to work, he distorts the perceived image in his head to become one with his finger elongated by means of a stick. That is an expression of intelligence.
Now he knows how to proceed: he breaks a branch from the tree and jabs with it in the cavity and extracts the honey for himself. He devised a new manipulation that brought him advantage. This is an expression of intelligence as defined by theory F.
(No. 5 in Picture Story): An ancestor of the chimpanzee, also living in trees, was used to biting leaves and fruit off the branches to serve as food. Because of his existence in the trees he had gradually developed, through evolution, the ability to grip with his limbs, his hands. That way he could move through the canopies of the trees better. But he discovered that he could also pick those leaves and fruit and carry them to his mouth. That he could even reach fruit hanging too far away from his mouth. He had invented a new manipulation with an advantage, again the result of intelligent thinking according to the way theory F.

As you see it is possible to explain a known behavior of the chimp with the definition for intelligence, as formulated in 4 of the Picture Story. It turns out that this manipulation also reveals itself in other forms. When we talk, we manipulate an air stream with a combination of our vocal cords, tongue and mouth in such a way that vibrations arise that our ears can translate into a meaning. The chimp does it too but has a very limited vocabulary. He can only produce panting, barking and scraping sounds but by doing so he can explain a few intentions to his peers.

If we use sign language we manipulate our body in poses that have a meaning for the spectator, the chimp can also do that but again very limited. So communication is also a kind of manipulation.

Then there's another kind of manipulation, which is manipulating the mind of a peer by means of communication, so that he or she is inclined to help you or to meet your desire. That is a form of social behavior.

Example of sign language:
A chimp sees a congener enjoying a tasty snack of food, he stretches a cupped hand to the eater. He uses body language to make clear he also wants a piece of it. He comes to this gesture (also a manipulation, but now of his own body) because his intelligence imitates the same gesture he made on a previous occasion, when he received food in a cupped hand. It is also a manipulation of another’s mind. The gesture expresses his dependency, a gesture that generates benevolence. His intelligence has imparted him with the effect of that gesture, he has devised a new manipulation with his intelligence.

You saw a few examples of how the chimp created new manipulations (more correct to say: how these new manipulations were generated during the evolution of the chimp). There are still 46 more manipulations that this animal has. Thus his arsenal measures 50. His Intelligence Number IN=50. This is determined after a comprehensive analysis of reports on observations of chimpanzees by scientists in the African jungles.

Here are some more examples to give you an impression of the arsenal of the Chimp:

Fishing ants with a sprig from an ant hill and stripping the annexed ants with the mouth.
Crumpling a plant leaf in his mouth cavity to a shape of a ball like a sponge with which he can absorb water from unreachable tree armpits.
Building a tree nest each evening from branches and leaves.
Grooming a peer by he picking off dust particles with his lips. He doesn’t have an opposable thumb to do this with a finger and thumb (see figure)
Lifting arm upwards as an invitation to come and groom.
Grinning with closed mouth to express submission.
Whimper = whining softly, to show embarrassment or sadness especially with children if they are refused something (at whining softly a sound is being generated that for the listener has a meaning, the whiner manipulates the air with its voice box in such a way that this sound is produced)

The numbers including 1 to 4 are called thing manipulations, they increase the well-being of the animal, the well-being was completely established by the hands. They constitute half of the 50 manipulations.
The numbers 5 and 6 are manipulations of the body to an attitude that is noticed and has a meaning for the spectator.
Number 7 is a manipulation of the air through the larynx, creating sounds that have meaning for the listener.

These three communication manipulations are also expressions of social behavior, they manipulate the mind of the other to move them to be benevolent. The body, air and mind manipulations constitute the social traffic with congeners and together constitute the other half of the 50. For each of those manipulations there is a reasoning, as above. Namely how by an expression of intelligence, as defined by theory F, that manipulation was established. This verifies the definition by using an observable reality. Because this verification leads to many plausible explanations, it means that this definition is no longer only plausible but is also actually true.

Without hands no intelligence

Finally I want to emphasize the overriding role of the hands in the development of the intelligence. In creating intelligence of the chimpanzee the hands only account for half, the other half was created by communication and emotion manipulation. However the latter cannot exist on their own, they can only function in a body and between bodies. That body was created by evolution. The intelligence guided that evolution to chimpanzee because their ancestors had hands. This allowed the intelligence to express itself more versatile than animals without hands and he reached the highest sophistication of all animals: the chimpanzee.
The ability to communicate could only develop as belonging to that body, and so indirectly as a result of the hands.

So: without Hands no Intelligence

Source and rights of illustrations including article 2: Drawn images by Max Farjon. Article 1: picture story 2,13,14,18; Article 2: crosssection brain © see ext.20 on www.zonderhandengeenintelligentie.nl