A Human Quotient- what do you think?
There are many psychological test that measure everything from the intelligence quotient to social quotient. How come there is isn’t a test to measure the human quotient? Kind of like the Gom Jabbar test in Dune or the android test on Blade Runner. The way I see it is being human is not an all or nothing deal. I wouldn’t call some serial killers human for instance. Maybe some people are a throwback to the Neanderthals. There should be a human quotient where being human can be quantified. When I meet someone and try to get to know them I like to put some kind of label as to how human they are; the same way everyone else does with everything from cognitive to emotional abilities. Don’t tell me you don’t because you probably don’t talk to someone with down syndrome or someone with serious emotional problems the way you would to a store clerk or your auto mechanic. There are sub humans among us in everyday life; they look human, they sound human but in fact they are somewhere between the apes and Mother Teresa for example. I’m not sure if that was a good example since I never met Mother Teresa. In fact I’m not even sure what a highly human person would be like other than the fact that they would have a good sense of appreciation of consequence. They would be someone, who wouldn’t do something horrible and later on when you asked them why they did it, quite honestly, say, “I don’t know”. What do you think?
Bradleigh
Veteran
Joined: 25 May 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 6,669
Location: Brisbane, Australia
But the thing is that you would have to measure how human they are, who could you possibly use as a scale, who would say what is human. Would you say that it is emotion or would you say that or is doing more human stuff ie not acting so much like an animal, or would you say that it is being closest to the most average person.
_________________
Through dream I travel, at lantern's call
To consume the flames of a kingdom's fall
First off, it would not be closest to the most average person. That would be like saying the most intelligent person is the person who scores closest to 100 on an IQ test. Secondly it is not emotion. Emotion is a by product or a tool. That would be like saying the most human person is the one who has the most rage and grief and tears. As for forming a scale, you have to admit that there is a trend of accomplishments, achievements and advances the human race has made since coming down from the trees and out of the caves and I don’t mean scientifically either. There have been incidences of regression throughout history such as genocide and wars etc. but surely you can see that in general there is a trend and direction ethically, philosophically and the way we perceive the universe. Even in the Stanley Milgram experiment almost forty percent of the test subjects refused to deliver a shock. What I am proposing is to find some way of testing to see how far along each person has come on the path to being more human. In fact we may even be able to extrapolate from where we were to where we are heading.
His name escapes me, but a man once said that you can measure a societies advancement by the amount of soap they use. Which is interesting because it speaks of their concern for appearance, health and socially acceptable behavior. It also might relate to their relative disposable income. Soap has been around almost since the discovery of fire.
So certainly their must be some qualities that are measurable, yet dont favour first world countries.
_________________
davidred wrote...
I installed Ubuntu once and it completely destroyed my paying relationship with Microsoft.
Bradleigh
Veteran
Joined: 25 May 2008
Age: 33
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 6,669
Location: Brisbane, Australia
So certainly their must be some qualities that are measurable, yet dont favour first world countries.
If that is true then those kids that are in the stage of wasting huge amounts of things like soap must be the most advanced of all of us. Personaly I think that if there is a quotent then maybe it should be based on ability to think different, like that is what sets us, thinking differently and adaptability.
_________________
Through dream I travel, at lantern's call
To consume the flames of a kingdom's fall
Soap is a tool and the ability to use tools could be one, and the ultimate tool would be an abstract idea. One human quotient factor may be the ability to develop and use abstract ideas. We have come from material tools to abstract tools (ideas). Is there anything that we can extrapolate from abstract ideas? What might come next in line after ideas such as mathematics? As in find the next word in the series: Soap, mathematics, ?
There are two ways of looking at that, problem solving ability as in finding ways to adapt and just plain adaptability. Even a virus can adapt so that’s out. Problem solving could be interpreted as intelligence, and the highest form of intelligent problem solving I guess would be abstract problem solving, as in visualizing a solution before actualizing it. I suppose that brings us back to using abstract ideas again. Is there, for example, an abstract idea that the average person would be incapable of comprehending no matter how much tutoring they receive? Can anyone add anything to that?
I think your human test is undefinable. Because what makes us more human to you sounds like sophistication and intelligence but i'm sure people with an excess of those things can be severely lacking in other very human traits. Humans are after all just animals seen by our main instinct in life is for sex, food, shelter, basic needs.
-Run a standard psychological test battery (for IQ, EQ, and some others if needed)
AND/OR
-Empathy quotient and Morality quotient tests.
These things all exist, they're not usually all run together as there isn't something that requires it currently (job applications when there are androids pehaps?)
Absolutely unbelievable idea. It's the sort of thing that would just further encourage discrimination, bullying, even vigilantism, since the idea comes across as having a clear theme of exclusion and divisiveness. I'd go so far as to say it sounds almost Nazi-esque in its concept. What possible purpose could this Human Quotient idea have other than labelling people? What are you trying to encourage or hope for, some sort of pogrom against people whose Human Quotient is below whatever level's deemed to be subhuman, since that's what you're calling people after all?
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
First human implanted with neuralink |
03 Feb 2024, 6:55 pm |
Scientists Discover The Human Brain Is Even More Powerful |
05 Mar 2024, 3:38 am |
Grotesque Human Rights Scandal Happening To Autistic People |
05 Apr 2024, 7:25 am |