From penicillin to space shuttles, computers to artificial hearts, we have achieved remarkable feats of innovation. So, what lies ahead for human intelligence?
If the views of certain scientists hold true, the future may not offer much advancement.
They assert that humanity has maximized its cognitive capabilities, claiming it is physically impossible for us to enhance our intelligence any further.
According to them, achieving greater intelligence would necessitate a significant increase in energy and oxygen for the human brain, which we simply cannot supply.
Researchers from Cambridge University have scrutinized the brain’s structure to determine the energy consumption of its cells.
Simon Laughlin, a neurobiology professor, stated, ‘Our research has shown that energy consumption is essential for brain function, and these energy demands are so significant that they restrict our capabilities and influence brain design.
‘To deduce complex ideas, a substantial amount of energy is required because the brain must continuously integrate information from various sources.
‘Such energy requirements indicate there is a ceiling to the amount of information we can handle.’
Other scientists argue that the brain’s ‘wiring’—the network of fibers connecting various regions—has reached its optimal state.
Their findings suggest that the most intelligent individuals possess superior wiring, allowing rapid communication between different brain areas.
However, they contend that enhancing this wiring would necessitate an enormous boost in energy, which, as mentioned, is beyond the realm of human capability, hence, our intelligence cannot evolve further.
Ed Bullmore, a psychiatry professor at Cambridge focused on brain imaging, assessed the communication efficiency among different brain sectors.
He discovered that faster impulse transmission was characteristic of more intelligent individuals, while slower transmissions were observed in less intelligent ones.
He remarked, ‘A highly integrated network among the brain seems to correlate with elevated IQ.
‘There is a cost associated with intelligence. Enhancing cognitive abilities involves improving connections between various brain regions, but this reaches stringent limits dictated by energy availability and space for wiring.’
Martijn van den Heuvel, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Utrecht Medical Centre in the Netherlands, who investigates how variations in human brain wiring influence IQ, stated, ‘Augmenting the brain’s power would result in a disproportionately high surge in energy needs.
‘While it is challenging to forecast long-term advancements, it is evident that intelligence operates within strict constraints.’
by David Livingstone
