logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2025
47m 17s

Ep88 "Might there exist very different k...

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

Why is it so difficult to define intelligence? What does this have to do with being a fish in water trying to describe water? Might we humans possess one kind of intelligence in a constellation of many other types? And what does this have to do with empathy, AI, and our search for extraterrestrial life? Join Eagleman with guest Kevin Kelly as they dive into whether there might exist very different kinds of minds.

Up next
Today
Re-Release " What is Color? Part 2: Why royals wear purple"
This week we reach into the archive for one of the most popular episodes of Inner Cosmos. Are there new colors you could see? And why are they impossible to imagine before you've seen them? Can you lose your color vision? And what does any of this have to do with linguistic color ... Show More
37m 58s
Oct 26
Re-Release "What is color? Part 1: Why hunters wear orange"
This week we reach into the archive for one of the most popular episodes of Inner Cosmos. Why do birds and bees choose different flowers? Why do mammals' eyes seem to be optimized for moving around at night, and what does that have to do with hairless humans getting angry? What d ... Show More
37m 36s
Oct 19
Ep175 Who Are You When Your Brain Changes? with Robert Kolker
Is your personality written into the circuitry of your brain? With brain disease, can someone lose who they are without realizing it? What happens when the person changing is the only one who can't see it? What does it mean to love someone whose personality has become unrecogniza ... Show More
43m 2s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2022
Ep 145: Minds
What is a mind? Can we pin it down? To what do the pronouns "I" and "you" really refer? Is the mind different to its contents? What do we know and what are we struggling still to understand? 
7m 9s
May 2024
Are You a Recovering Intellectual?
If you've ever wondered why the smartest people in the room can do the dumbest things (and especially if you think you might be one of those people :-), this week's episode explores the double-edged sword of the intellect and how to wield it wisely in the world! 
9m 11s
May 2025
How did intelligence arise?
Daniel and Kelly answer listener questions about how we measure and define intelligence, hypotheses for why it arises, and why flies are so dumb. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
1 h
Jan 2023
Ep 185 | Would You Rather Have Intelligence (IQ) or Wisdom?
How would you explain the difference between intelligence and wisdom? Which brings better life success? The story of Chesley Sullenberger and how he landed his airplane on the Hudson River. Why men are overrepresented in the top and bottom of the IQ bell curve. Can one's IQ be ch ... Show More
42m 44s
Jul 2022
Where Did Human Intelligence Come From?
We humans are smart, to be sure, but if we’re so smart then how come we can’t figure how we got so smart in the first place? Think about that! We sure did and we go over some theories in this super interesting episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
46m 8s
Jan 2024
How should we measure cleverness?
Presenter Marnie Chesterton and the team pit their wits against a multitude of mind-bending puzzles from an old TV gameshow - all in the name of answering a question from Antonia in Cyprus: how do we work out how clever someone is? Is IQ the best measure of cleverness? Why do we ... Show More
26m 27s
Apr 2022
How should we measure cleverness?
<p>The team at CrowdScience have spent years answering all sorts of listener questions, which must make them pretty smart, right? IN this week’s episode, that assumption is rigorously tested as Marnie Chesterton and the team pit their wits against a multitude of mindbending puzzl ... Show More
44m 4s
Jun 2022
Why You're Smarter Than You Think
<p>From the time we are schoolchildren, we are ranked and sorted based on how smart we are. But what if our assumptions about intelligence limit our potential? This week, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman proposes a more expansive notion of what it means to be "smart."</p><p><i>If ... Show More
48m 53s