The power to predict

Perhaps the most practical description of intelligence is “the power to predict”. So far, I can’t think of any example of intelligence that does not fit that definition. Prediction seems to be the whole reason for it to exist.

You and I seem to live in the bizarre situation where we are constantly traveling in a direction we cannot see. We have to steer, but we can only see where we have already been. In order to travel well, we have to make intelligent guesses about how to steer, based on what we just passed; lines on the road, the nature of obstacles we almost hit, what our neighbors are hitting. This must be a fun game because judging from the crowds it is very popular. One strategy to do well in this game is to develop intelligence.

Now consider a being that lives outside of time. This being can view time as just another dimension in space. She could “see” history at a glance. Past and future have no meaning. Different times are simply different locations on a landscape.

This being has no need for intelligence; there is nothing to predict. She would seem to us to be super intelligent and wise and knowledgeable. To us she would appear to be omniscient and omnipresent