IQ Tests

I've heard the controversy all of my life. "What do IQ Tests mean?" People who score very low or very high claim that they do not mean anything. Those who score in the middle think it shows how smart they are. I always score 168, so you know what that means...

Well, friends, I will reveal what IQ Tests really are! That's right, I said "Are"! Or at least my guess based on my world belief as to what they represent. They represent socialization.

The tests are pattern matchings. "Which of these things is not like the others." "What is the next number in this sequence." "Which of the millions of words available to humans did you choice to learn." Which patterns do you need to match? Why, those of the people who created the tests of course. I claim that the tests find people who will see the same patterns as the test makers.

As I've stated before, giving a finite sequence, there are an infinite number of next possible items to that sequence. Also, given any set of items, there are a seemingly endless set of differences and similarities. So, out of all of these infinite choices, which one is correct? All of them. But, since IQ Tests have one correct answer, they want you to see the world the same as they do, then they will call you smart.

"But why socialization?" you might ask. Because we are trained in many of the sequences from birth. Sure, we have some in born ones that are common to all humans, but we have cultural ones as well - which is why people from different cultures score differently on IQ Tests from different countries. Here we have Sesame Street telling us one of the things is different from the others, then telling us which one and why. Telling us what is next in a given sequence. The same things happen in school, which is its purpose. The "smarter" we are, the more of the socially correct patterns we learn from these various sources.

So then, what makes someone smarter than someone else, if my belief is correct? The person who can spot the pattern soonest or with the fewest elements of the sequence, and give the same remainder of the pattern or sequence with this limited information. So, if you can tell me what the next number is in this: 1 4 9 16 25 36 after all of those, but someone could tell me the same number 49 after just 1 4 9, we would say that person is smarter. Or as I say, better matched in pattern recognition with the designer of the test.

Aliens would see a different next-in-sequence than a human, since they would have a different internal model of the Universe than we do. How would an alien score on a human North American test? Probably not very well. This would be another way to spot an alien... or alien influence. :)

There is another path, another option. What if you knew that there were endless choices that were all equally correct, how can you possibly "pass" the IQ Test? You would have to have a model of the Test Designer. With this mental model, you feed in the sequence, and out pops the most likely next-in-sequence for which they were looking. So, even though ones internal model of patterns may not be human standard, as long as one can mental encompass that which humans expect to be next, one can appear as human or as smart as one desires. If this being trying to influence humans, that is where it would stand out, since predicting the next-in-sequence is very different from trying to make humans believe a different next-in-sequence...

The Edward