INTELLIGENCE IS NOT IQ, BUT THE CAPACITY OF IMAGINATION.

“Logic can take you from ‘A’ to ‘B’, but imagination can take you anywhere.” when Albert Einstein said their words, the world was trapped in the clutches of withering ‘Feudalism’ that was making way for a new world order. However, the populace's thoughts were still bound by tradition and war. What was needed to solve this stagnation was- imagination.

Intelligence is usually related to understanding fact-learning and reproducing these facts. The layman's perspective on intelligence is identical to ‘knowing’. A high score in SAT or board exams or a remarkable record in solving IQ tests is considered to be a mark of intelligence.

However, the history of the world teaches us that this has never been the case. It is a recent trend, says a survey by the Cambridge Department of Psychology. Modern academics have still not been able to free themselves of feudal medievalism that equates intelligence with the capacity for rote learning and even religious instruction.

Francis Bacon in his ‘Doctrine of the Idols’ argues that knowledge is not a statement but a question. A question that leads to more questions; some of these questions lead to answers while some self-proliferate. This process can only be understood by an individual with a sense of imagination.

‘The flight of imagination’ is an expression in daily use. What is this flight of imagination? It is the virtue, exclaims Immanuel Kant in ‘A Philosophical Sketch’ that allows freedom from the usual. It makes you think in alternative universes and thus is the real form of intelligence.

The human brain has expanded from the minute 150-200ccm of the erstwhile Australopithecus africanus to its usual form in Homo sapiens sapiens. Richard Leakey writes about this observation saying that it does not necessarily point out that evolution has led to increasing in ‘IQ’ because that is a term we have developed for ourselves.

IQ is therefore a frame of reference for comparing human cranial capacity and not the real potential that lies in cognitive abilities that can be found in the imagination. Human beings are unique not because we have IQ- for that is applied to other animals, especially apes. We are unique because we hold the power of imagination.

The paintings of rock-cut shelters in Bhimbetka and Lakhudiyar show us that intelligence’s true worth has been its affinity towards imagination, since time immemorial. From the discovery of fire, wheels, and stone tools to the building of huts and villages, it has always been imagination that has acted as the ‘spring of intelligence’.

Socrates viewed the Athenian State as a ‘flawed one’ while all others considered otherwise. He wrote comprehensively about the inadequacies of the administration and the social inequalities. This intelligence was rooted in imagination and Socrates was given the death sentence. This shows how the world has treated imaginative geniuses since the Ancient Period. There have been instances of ‘heretics’ and ‘blasphemous’ minds who have brought forward the true picture of the universe but ultimately suffered because the world couldn’t understand their imagination. Nicolas Copernicus is a prime example - he dared to imagine the ‘heliocentric’ model of the solar system but ended up offending the Church - being burned at the stake.

The problematic perspective of comprehending ‘intelligence is mere IQ’ has had further disastrous consequences for society. ‘Manusmriti’ - a repugnant orthodox didactic manual - only because of concocted ‘facts’ presented as intelligence, changed the face of the cosmopolitan society of Ancient India. It promoted patriarchy and anti-female rituals like Sati.

To change this lack of imagination, the Bhakti movement rose to promote the idea of a different ‘monotheistic’ god and the liberation of women through devotion. Akka Mahadem, Karaikal Ammaiyar, and Andal wrote outstanding verses and perceived god through imagination. And even today this imagination is respected as pure foresight and intelligence.

Imagination always stands the test of time while IQ fails there miserably. Children are taught hard facts in school, but they forget them in the future. What stays with them until old age and even death is their imagination. And imagination never dies with the beholder, it spreads and grows further.

Alan Moore in his graphic novel states ‘Ideas are Bulletproof’ - they cannot be killed. Imagination is the repository of ideas and their application has yielded epoch-making results for humanity. Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Industrial Revolution, and Commercial Revolution all of them have sprouted from intelligence to see things in different ways.

These revolutions are testimony not only to the past but also to the future. Entrepreneurship requires problem-solving capabilities, energy, and willpower. These requirements are fueled by the imagination, of course, IQ is important for running an enterprise - but that is an apparatus of the workers who will be led by a ‘leader’.

Imagination is a prerequisite for effective leadership. The intelligence of this leadership encompasses empathy, integrity, and emotional quotient (EQ) among the team members. For example, Elon Musk founded Tesla and SpaceX not based on IQ but on a bigger intelligence background, including the aforementioned EQ, risk assessment, and most importantly, imagination. This capacity for imagination is reflected in his projects of hyperloop, eclectic micro-submarines, and Falcon rockets.

If it weren’t for man’s imagination to reach the moon, a whole industry of space exploration, navigation, transportation, hazard mapping, disaster management, telecommunication, geographic assessment, and missions to other plants and now the Sun ( Parker Solar Probe) have been possible.

Innovation is central to the betterment of society - which is the foremost goal of intelligence. Imagination yields innovation, and hence expansion of intelligence. New perspectives in politics led us from monarchy to dictatorships to democracy. New ideologies in religion led us from ignorance to fanaticism to secularism. New notions in diplomacy led us from alliances to non-alignment to multi-alignment.

The benefits of imagination have been reaped in governance policies as well. GST, Demonetization, Direct Benefit Transfer, E-Marketing, and Tele-Medicine are some of the imaginative measures that have improved service delivery. These wouldn’t be possible in India without the capacity to imagine - even though we have high-IQ youth professionals

Isaac Asimov wrote novels on Robotics in the early 20th century and all conventional scholars mocked him for being frivolous. But today over a century later we stand at the cusp of a Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Revolution. Asimov dared to imagine.

Jane Austen wrote ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at the time of social oppression in Britain. She gave birth to female literature without taking a formal education. She is credited as the most intellectual of female writers - ‘without even giving a dubious IQ test’. This also shows the difference between intellect and IQ - the former heavily leans on application and imagination.

Kant said that humans deserve dignity because we can ‘reason’. And it is because of reasoning that we take the flight of imagination. It gives rise to the wishes, desires, and ‘dreams’ of Martin Luther King Jr. It gives rise to the empathy of Mother Teresa, the courage of Malala, and the spirituality of Gandhi. Imagination is a package of inferences and applications of human virtues. “It makes us see, and when we see - we act. And when we act - we change the world”. ‘Change for the better’ is the objective of intelligence and hence is firmly rooted in our capacity for imagination.