Today, there is so much hype about artificial intelligence, although AI applications have been around us for years. Some are extremely optimistic about AI, while others have expressed concerns, as they are unsure about how the rise of “intelligent” machines would impact humanity. In this debate between the two sides, we have somewhat lost sight of what truly got us here to this stage of progress and development to begin with: human intelligence, or as we call it, human vital intelligence.
Human vital intelligence is about more than merely thinking – even machines can perform tasks that resemble thinking in a sense – Vital intelligence sustains life. Various phyiscal, biological, and even psychological systems work together intricately to give rise to intelligent life – which is way more sophisticated and complex than our best computational devices.
Human vital intelligence is natural, and we are still in the early phases of understanding it. Tools like MRI, EEG, CT scans, and others give us the ability to take a look inside the brain, but we are still far from fully understanding how this enigmatic organ works, let alone defining intelligence. For this reason, we believe it to be premature to use the term artificial “intelligence”. Instead, we prefer to use the term “sophisticated computational power”. And while this term applies better to traditional computers than quantum computers, neither of them can be considered as a vital form of “intelligence”.
Not only humans are intelligent, but so is the natural world around them. Plants, animals, planets, stars, molecules, cells, particles, light, and water all work according to an extremely complex set of rules – a hidden and infinitely lengthy code – and they all behave brilliantly within the bounds of their characteristics and conditions. With this, we discover that human vital intelligence is only one form of intelligence among many other forms in nature (including individual and collective forms). Intelligence – any intelligence – is a fascinating phenomenon that is worthy of further exploration.
It is our belief that if every human being reached their peak vital intelligence level, they would live a much more fulfilling life. Yet, it is unfortunate that so many of us live life with only a margin of that due to various factors. We are living below our potential.
Our mission is to enable human beings and humanity at large to harness its own intelligence and unleash its innate formidable capabilities. We can achieve this by reaching a better understanding of ourselves, our surrounding environment, and the interactions in between.
To achieve its mission, `Vital Intelligence will offer services and feature various topics in psychology, neuroscience, behavioural biology, group dynamics, organisational behaviour, complexity science and others. The central theme is, of course, human vital intelligence.
Our vital intelligence has enabled us to reach the moon, make marvellous machines, treat diseases and save lives before. We can only begin to imagine how much further it will take us in the future. We hope and believe it will take us to extraordinary new heights.
We wish you a very enjoyable and enlightening read, and that you live an ever more intelligent life.
Moneer Barazi
Editor in Chief