Summary || What is Intelligence || Isaac Asimov

This chapter ‘What is Intelligence’ tells us about a doctor who was placed in the army and he took an intelligence test along with his other fellow mates. He scored much higher than the average score which was 100 and thus thought himself to be more intelligent than his colleagues in the army. He had always been topping the intelligence test and thought himself to be wiser than all as he was able to answer more than the average man. Then he wonders if his car mechanic is able to repair his car within minutes and talks about terms about terms which the narrator is unable to understand. This forces him to think whether he has a less aptitude level. Then he thinks that if the aptitude test is prepared by anyone else who is not an academician but a farmer or carpenter, then he won’t be able to do well in it posing as an idiot. One day he visits his car mechanic again when the mechanic has a humorous conversation in which he asks how a blind man would ask for scissors to which the narrator does it with action of two fingers to which the mechanic calls him a dumb and says a deaf and dumb will ask like that but why a blind man would? This again forces the narrator to think who holds a higher aptitude level - he or his car mechanic? Thus none holds absolute intelligence, only a part of it is owned by each.

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The Auto Repairman

The auto repairman is the mechanic of the author of the lesson ‘What is Intelligence’ Issac Asimov. He is the mechanic of the author every time it faces a problem. The author is also highly impressed by the way the repair man is able to repair the car and is able to detect the fault within minutes. Thus the auto repairman us said to possess logical intelligence. Though the auto repair man doesn’t have the same type of intelligence which is possessed by the author yet he has the intelligence which is required by his profession. The author is thus ‘book-smart’. He asks questions to his customers and judges their level of practice on that basis.

Intelligence

Intelligence may be the competency to deal with things. The people who possess intelligence are supposed to do work more efficiently. We get to know many such people by the work they do. But we also know that all types of work cannot be done by one person. So we have varied occupations and thus varies the type of intelligence. The person who possesses the linguistic intelligence may not possess the mathematical intelligence, so we cannot give the same aptitude tests to all people. The parameters are different to judge as there are different types of intelligence. Thus the use of the word moron is inadequate because a person who proves to be a moron in one field may prove to be very intelligent in another field and vice versa.