The universal feeling of being out of sync The gifted are an important part of achieving the future and these articles with a deeper understanding of what it means to be gifted can help save this future.
What I took from the article was that the gifted, especially at an early age, tend to have a hard time fitting into society, they get ridculed, and end up isolating themselves. Society judgest you by your emotional intelligence, rather than your abstract intelligence. Those who have the people skills fit well, and those who don't, even if they're brilliant otherwise, aren't welcome. Fortunately, society is maturing and we're beyond the Galileo days, at least in modern societies. But the rules still apply.
The lesson is: if you want to build AGI that people won't fear, give it a good sense of humor.
tyrhaynes1 votesMonday, January 21, 2008 at 1:59 AM
Most gifted have a high emotional intelligence from my own experience within my circle of peers. The difference is a measure of sensitivity and ability to manage that emotional intelligence. Its easier for one less gifted to handle less powerful emotions; its similar to comparing a Harley to a moped or a pipet to a graduated cylinder. This very power and precision can be problematic as you try to deal with the constant lying, cheating, backstabbing and cognitive dissonance found amongst most norms. Picking up on the multiple many times contradictory signals often leads to doubting your own perceptions and that leads to self doubt and a lessening of confidence.
I wouldn't say there is much maturation going on. What's really happening is that the lowest bar is going up worldwide but I don't think the pinnacle is going up much if at all. Much like our educational system. The standard is still to mow the lawn to make everyone equal rather than setting the bar higher to encourage minds to grow in a meaningful way.
A good sense of humor helps a lot though! You have to be able to laugh at yourself because the reflection in the mirror is so ridiculous:)
> Most gifted have a high emotional intelligence from my own > experience within my circle of peers. The difference is a > measure of sensitivity and ability to manage that emotional > intelligence.
I'm using the term Emotional Intelligence to refer to the ability of someone to understand how others think and communicate with them at their level. A gifted person who also has high EI, would understand the complexity of emotions that control his/her peers and would know how to treat them in ways that make him/her be liked in their groups. That doesn't seem to be happening because the gifted people, at least in the example in the article, are not able to fit it. They're not able to understand that they're much smarter than their peers and live with it.
tyrhaynes1 votesTuesday, January 22, 2008 at 1:31 AM
Ah, thank you for elucidating your point.
Just because you have the ability to manipulate others in order to fit in/achieve status and choose to do so isn't necessarily a sign of EI but more a sign of your ethics. This becomes a quandary for those with a high sensitivity in such situations. After awhile unless your drunk on power it becomes quite meaningless and a poor use of precious time that could be spent doing something worthwhile (from the POV of a gifted person.)
Also, the need to mold yourself and your behaviour in order to fit in can become intolerable. As I believe Aristotle pointed out behaviour shapes morals and excellence so if you behave in a lying fashion it will have ramifications in other parts of the psyche which might not be obvious initially but propagate like the proverbial butterfly within a sensitive system. Self deception also becomes rampant within many of the gifted that I know including myself and must be guarded against vigourously. It is far too easy to rationalize and very intelligent people can very easily twist pragmatism into a dangerous worldview.
My mentor once told me "Its not arrogance when its the truth." This simple statement helped me greatly in dealing with myself and the society around me. Most people really hate the elite in any form even when they "worship" them. They eagerly await either the great success but secretly hope for the great failure. Harrison Bergeron was a fantastic short story by Vonnegut that illuminated this situation for me when I was a kid.
"They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool" -John Lennon
> Just because you have the ability to manipulate others in order > to fit in/achieve status and choose to do so isn't necessarily a > sign of EI but more a sign of your ethics
EI is not about manipulating others. For example, when you want to express disagreement with someone, you can either start by saying that you appreciate what they're trying to do but you respectfully disagree; or you can accuse them of being stupid. EI is about appreciating that humans have feelings and taking that into consideration in every communication.
This story brought the concept home for me when I heard it a few years ago: As the airplane landed, the flight attended asked everyone to stay in their seats until the plane reaches a full stop. But a few minutes later, the passengers slowly started standing up and preparing to move. At that point, the flight attendant picked up the microphone and said with a smile and a fun tone: "you're standing up". At which point the passengers smiled back and got back to their seats.
So, the flight attendant used a simple but powerful approach to get the message across. She could've confronted the passengers with the fact that regulations prevent them from standing, but she knew she could accomplish the same goal while at the same time gain the passengers respect.
tyrhaynes1 votesTuesday, January 22, 2008 at 2:59 PM
The EI definition you are using is simply showing tact and emotional awareness of others. EI is a broader term encompassing many such social skills.
Definition of Manipulate from Answers.com "To manage or control in a clever or unfair way."
We seem to have differing definitions of manipulation. Your story of the flight attendant showed an astute grasp of the art of manipulation and influencing others. Humor is a great tool in making manipulation more palatable.
"A gifted person who also has high EI, would understand the complexity of emotions that control his/her peers and would know how to treat them in ways that make him/her be liked in their groups." -wal
This is manipulation in that you are playing on the weakness of other people so you can be popular. The word "control" is key here.
This is also why there are so many bullies. It is very easy to become popular as a bully and achieve status. This does not make the act of bullying acceptable to me even though it is a popular path to power for both men and women. Contrary to myth women are just as common as bullies as children and as adults just the form of the bullying tends to be more verbal and emotional than physical or violent.
As far as Emotional Intelligence goes last semester we looked at the many fallacies involving EQ or EI or whatever name it goes by this week. Unfortunately, it looks like most forms of EQ involve measuring some form of conforming rather than measuring emotional stability, awareness, or management. In fact the act of conforming may be showing a lower "True EQ" because while you may gain in status, influence, society you are not gaining in self actualization and awareness and necessarily living the life you secretly want to in order to gain the benefits of fitting in.
Manipulation can be positive such as when a parent manipulates a child not to go running around the house with scissors or avoid dangerous substances.
To a person that regards attempts to reign in personal freedom the constant petty manipulations that is part of daily life in our society is insulting. For myself if someone I know wants help and simply asks me for my help I will almost always do so. There is no need to make me feel sorry for them with a story or hint around or attempt to make me feel guilty for not helping them without even asking.
Don't treat me as an object or a fulfiller of your desires. I'm a human being that deserves to be treated with respect and in a straight forward honest fashion.
One day a co-worker called an action I was doing stupid and I realized he was correct and we went from co-workers who said a couple of words a day to each other to best friends now in the span of about five years. Notice he did not call me stupid but the action. Calling the kettle black is not insulting its the truth which is something many people need to get back into doing and saying instead of worrying if the truth is going to offend someone. Political correctedness an
I think we're agreeing on the concepts but using different terminology. Either way, understanding social cues is probably going to be one of the most challenging tasks for AI and might be the last to solve.
The lesson is: if you want to build AGI that people won't fear, give it a good sense of humor.