Book 2 Unit 9
Asimov explains why there is much more in intelligence than just being able to score high on intelligence tests.
What Is Intelligence, Anyway?
Isaac Asimov
What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army I received a kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP as my highest duty.)
All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so, too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by the people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?
For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron. And I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute. Its worth is determined by the society I live in. Its numerical evaluation is determined by a small subsection of that society which has managed to foist itself on the rest of us as an arbiter of such matters.
Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-dumb guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"
I lifted my right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed heartily and said, "Why, you dumb fool, he used his voice and asked for them." Then he said, smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I know you couldn't be very smart."
And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.
課文翻譯
阿西莫夫說明了為什麼智力遠非只是在智力測驗中取得高分。
智力到底是什麼？
艾薩克·阿西莫夫
智力到底是什麼呢？當我在部隊服役時，我曾接受過一種所有士兵都參加的智能測驗，在標準得分為100的情況下，我得了160分。基地上沒有哪個人曾見過這樣的高分，於是他們便對我大加吹捧了兩個小時之久。（這對我毫無意義。第二天我仍然是一名列兵，最高的職務是擔任夥食值勤員。）
我一生中一直得到這樣的高分，因此便有一種自鳴得意之感，認為自己非常聰明，而且期望別人也這樣認為。然而，實際上，難道這類分數不是僅僅意味著我很善於回答那些編制智力測驗的人們——智力愛好跟我類似的人們——認為值得回答的那類學究式的問題嗎？
比方說吧，我過去有位汽車修理師，據我估計，在這類智力測驗中，他的得分不大可能會超過80。我過去總是想當然地以為我比他聰明得多。然而，每當我的汽車出了毛病，我總是急急忙忙地去找他，焦急地注視著他檢查汽車的主要部位，恭聽著他的見解，仿佛聆聽神諭一般——而他總能把我的汽車修好。
那好，假定讓我的汽車修理師來為智力測驗設計題目。或是讓一位木匠、一個農夫或者是除了學究以外的幾乎任何一個人來設計題目。按每一次這類的測驗來衡量，我都會表明自己是一個笨蛋，而且我也會真的成為一個笨蛋。在一個無法運用我所受過的學校訓練以及我在詞語方面的才能，而不得不用雙手工作，做一些複雜或艱苦的事情的世界上，我會幹得很差勁。因此，我的智力並不是絕對的。它的價值是由我生活在其中的社會所決定的。它的數值是由那個社會中的一小部分人決定的，他們作為這類事情的仲裁人已設法把他們的意志強加在我們身上。
再來考慮一下我的汽車修理師吧。他有個習慣，每次見到我都要跟我講些笑話。有一次他從汽車引擎罩下面抬起頭來說：「博士，有一個又聾又啞的人走進一家五金店買釘子。他把兩個手指頭一起放在櫃檯上，用另一隻手做了幾次錘擊動作。」「店員給他拿來一把錘子。他搖搖頭，指了指他正在敲擊的那兩個手指頭。店員給他拿來了釘子。他選出了自己需要的尺寸，然後就走了。聽好，博士，接著進來的是一個瞎子。他要買剪刀。你猜他是怎樣表示的呢？」
我舉起右手，用食指和中指做了幾次剪切動作。我的汽車修理師一看就開心地哈哈大笑起來說：「啊，你這個笨蛋，他是用他的嗓子說他要買剪刀的。」接著他又沾沾自喜地說：「今天我用這個問題把我所有的主顧都考了一下。」「上當的人多嗎？」我問。「不少，」他說。「但我事先就吃準你一定會上當。」「那為什麼？」我問。「因為你受的教育太多了，博士，我知道你不會太精明的。」
我有一種不安的感覺：他的話不無道理。
編輯整理：王樹振
圖片來自網絡
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