Does Intelligence Provide Survival Value?

Abstract

Intelligence is defined as a general mental capacity to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas, and learn. Intelligence can also be defined as the ability to acquire and apply information gathered from the environment to modify its behavior. It is this intelligence that has allowed the genus Homo to survive for 2 million years. However, recently the global financial meltdown and the deleterious effects of climate change raise the question of whether intelligence has survival value for huge populations effectively isolated from the natural systems in which Homo evolved and survived. Humans view themselves as the most intelligent species, but for humans to survive they must display their intelligence effectively.