Our Intelligent Bodies

Chapter 1
Intelligence and Problem Solving

Wikipedia and intelligence
Intelligence has been defined as one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.  It is also the ability to perceive and/or to retain knowledge or information and to apply it.  Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in non-human animals.  Artificial intelligence is intelligence in machines and computer software.
The word intelligence derives from the Latin verb intelligere, to comprehend or to perceive. A form of this verb, intellectus, became the medieval technical term for understanding, and a translation for the Greek philosophical term nous. This term, however, was strongly linked to teleology and to the concepts of the active intellect (also known as the active intelligence) and immortality of the soul. Such an approach to the study of nature was rejected by the early modernphilosophers including Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and David Hume, all of whom preferred the word "understanding" in their English philosophical works.  Hobbes for example, in his Latin De Corpore, used "intellectus intelligit" (translated in the English version as "the understanding understandeth") as a typical example of a logical absurdity. The term "intelligence" has therefore become less common in English language philosophy but was taken up later with the scholastic theories it now implies.
To some, the definition of intelligence is controversial.  Indeed, when two dozen prominent experts were asked to define intelligence, they gave two dozen different definitions.  Some psychologists have suggested the following definition.  A general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience.  Intelligence is not merely book learning or test-taking smarts.  Rather, intelligence reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on," "making sense” of things, or "figuring out" what to do. 

Individuals differ from one another in their abilities to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles by taking thought.  We have different intelligence quotients (IQs).  One’s IQ is computed based on the norm for his age group and circumstances.  That norm is assigned the value of 100.  Therefore, one’s IQ can be either above or below 100.  Although individual differences can be substantial, they are never entirely consistent among humans.  One's intellectual performance will vary on different occasions, in different domains, and as judged by different criteria.  

The widely-varying human capacity to learn, store and recall information can be illustrated by game shows such as Jeopardy.  Most contestants who qualify to be on the show are eliminated from competition after a single round.  Ken Jennings, however, holds the record for the longest winning streak on the show.  He is also the second highest-earning contestant in American game show history.  In 2004, Jennings won 74 consecutive matches of Jeopardy (nearly four months of appearances) before being defeated, on his 75th appearance, by challenger Nancy Zerg.  Jenning’s total earnings on Jeopardy were $3,196,300, consisting of $2,520,700 over his 74 wins, a $2,000 second-place prize in his 75th appearance, a $500,000 second-place prize in the Jeopardy Ultimate Tournament of Champions, a $100,000 win for second-place prize in the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades, as well as half of a $300,000 prize in the IBM Challenge, when he competed against Watson, the computer designed by IBM engineers.  

Oxford Dictionary (www.oxforddictionaries.com) and intelligence
According to the Oxford Dictionary, intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. Intelligence is also a person or being with the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills, according to Oxford.  Further, intelligence is the collection of information of military or political value, and people employed in the collection of military or political information.  From the Oxford Dictionaries on-line comes the following discussion of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the gathering of covert intelligence.  The launching of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on 18 September 1947 signaled an American addition to the customary use of the word ‘intelligence’. Referring to mental capacity the word had carried one of two principal meanings. The first, by 1947 archaic, simply indicated news. The second meaning covered information, at least partly clandestine and sometimes processed and analyzed, that might be of strategic importance.  

The advent of the CIA encouraged an additional meaning that had already been gathering pace, and would solidify in the near future. The expanded definition came to embrace not just the gathering and cognitive processes, but action as well. First in CIA parlance and then in general American usage, intelligence came to include covert operations, the effort to influence politics in foreign countries by undercover means.

Deployment of the word ‘intelligence’ was a way of making covert action more respectable. The battle was already half-won, as covert operations had come to be accepted and even admired in the Second World War, and the anxieties generated by the Cold War were predisposing people to accept peacetime practices that they might previously have questioned. But ‘intelligence’ still had a better reputation than covert operations.  It had come to be seen as a magic wand. There was widespread belief that had U.S. intelligence not been in disarray it could have prevented the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Equally popular was the belief that improved intelligence had helped to achieve victory in the naval battle of Midway and in the wider war.  The word ‘intelligence’ came to confer a respectability behind which the dirtiest of ‘dirty tricks’ could hide.

Merriam Webster’s Learners Dictionary.com and intelligence
According to Merriam Webster intelligence is the ability to learn or to understand or to deal with new or trying situations; reason; also the skilled use of reason; the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests).  The innate ability to ‘solve problems’ to ‘overcome obstacles’ and ‘to deal with trying situations’ is among the definitions I will use to describe our intelligent bodies at the organ systems, organs, tissues, cells, subcellular and even molecular levels.  In arguing this way I hope to persuade the reader that signs of intelligence, as defined here and above, are found ubiquitously throughout the human body.  As a disclaimer, however, I do not think that each cell or subcellular organelle has its own little brain.

Physical and physiological concepts that imply intelligence
Homeostasis---Walter B. Cannon (October 19, 1871-October 1, 1945) was an American physiologist who chaired the Department of Physiology at Harvard University circa 1906 to 1942.  He was President of the American Physiological Society from 1914 to 1916.  Cannon wrote the book The Wisdom of the Body that was first published in 1932.  In his book and elsewhere Cannon championed and popularized the idea of ‘physiological homeostasis’ (extended from Claude Bernard’s ideas of the constancy of the bodies internal environment, i.e. the milieu interieur).  

In 1915 Cannon coined the phrase ‘fight or flight’ to describe an animal's response to threats.  He outlined four tentative propositions to describe the general features of homeostasis: 1.) Constancy in an open system, such as our bodies, requires mechanisms that act to maintain this constancy.  Cannon based this proposition on insights into the ways by which steady states such as glucose concentrations (blood sugar), body temperature and acid-base balance are regulated.  2.) Steady-state conditions require that any tendency toward change automatically meets with factors that resist change.  An increase in blood sugar (a potential problem) results in thirst as the body attempts to dilute the concentration of sugar in the extracellular fluid.  It also results in release of insulin as the body helps the cells acquire access to the elevated glucose.  3.) The regulating system that determines homeostasis consists of a number of cooperating mechanisms acting simultaneously or successively.  Blood sugar is regulated by insulin, glucagon, and other hormones that control its circulating concentrations in the plasma, its release from the liver, and its uptake by the tissues (the solution to the problem of excess or insufficient circulating concentrations of blood sugar).  4.) Homeostasis does not occur by chance, but is the result of organized self-government and physiological intelligence.

Cannon’s proposition number four above sounds like an application of intelligence as defined earlier.  So the processes of elevations in blood sugar (following ingestion of a meal), stimulation of thirst, balanced and coordinated release of insulin from the pancreas, and later release of glucagon from the liver, are all part of an organized, self-governing, intelligent system functioning at the molecular, subcellular, cellular, tissue and organ systems levels.  The physiological end results of such coordination are, homeostasis of circulating concentrations of blood sugar, energy balance, and sustained health and well-being of the body.  Homeostatic regulation of blood sugar is only one of an endless list of physiological functions that intelligently sustain our physical bodies. Here is a short list of others I will describe in later chapters: body water and its distribution, blood flow and its regulation, body salt and electrolyte balance, and control of blood pressure. 

According to Cannon, steady-state conditions require that any tendency toward change automatically meets with factors that resist change.  A physiological process that is in the steady state is one that is not changing with time. Consider your own blood pressure.  When you go for your annual medical examinations you might be more or less excited.  Perhaps you are anxious about being on time, being delayed in traffic, or missing work.  You might park the car then walk briskly to the doctor’s office.  By the time the nurse escorts you into the examination room, wraps a pressure cuff around your upper arm, and listens for sounds as she deflates the cuff, your blood pressure is probably elevated.  It would not be unusual for the nurse to call out numbers such as 135 over 85 or 140 over 90, especially in patients other than young adults, teens and children. These numbers for systolic and diastolic pressures are on the modestly-high side of normal.  Even though elevated blood pressure is common with aging in older people, the above numbers can be nerve racking during a hurried doctor’s visit.

On occasions when I have been lying quietly for 15-20 minutes on an examination bed in my own laboratory, a research assistant (or other student being trained how to monitor blood pressure) can measure my blood pressure and the numbers are about 120 over 80.  These are noticeably lower than those mentioned above and they fall within the physiological range for a healthy adult. The two sets of data were obtained under widely-differing conditions.  In the doctor’s examination room we are usually seated, and often nervous about what lies ahead.  Under such conditions neither we nor our cardiovascular systems are in Cannon’s ‘steady state.’  

Conversely, when lying quietly on my own examination bed none of the above disturbances apply.  If my research assistant measures my blood pressure immediately after instrumenting me, then again at 5-minute intervals during a 15-20 minute period, he will most likely find my pressures elevated on the first trial, a bit lower on the next, and not changing in the third and fourth measurements.  In other words, after 15-20 minutes of resting quietly in the supine position the physiological factors that regulate my blood pressure have reached Cannon’s ‘steady state’ conditions and my cardiovascular system is in a state of homeostasis. 
Alternatively, if I have a 1-gallon container filled with water then punch a hole in the bottom of the container, the water will flow out at a rate determined by gravity and the size of the hole.  The larger the hole the greater the rate of flow and the less time it will take for the water to escape.  If I have a stopwatch and a graduated cylinder I can collect some of the escaping water and calculate its rate of flow from the container.  Imagine the hole is a small one and the rate of outflow is 100 milliliters per minute.  After about twenty minutes at this rate the container will have only about half its original volume (1 gallon is about equal to 4 liters or 4000 milliliters).  In twenty minutes more the container will be empty.  However, if I begin pouring water into the container when it is half empty, and if the rate of inflow (pouring) is 100 milliliters per minute, then the rates of inflow and outflow will be equal and the container will remain half full for as long as the exercise is sustained.  At such a point in time the volume of water in the container is said to be ‘in equilibrium’ because the two rates of flow are equal.

Now imagine that we substitute the 1-gallon container with a 1.25 gallon human circulatory system and the blood in it (about 5 liters).  Imagine also that one’s heart pumps those 1.25 gallons of blood around the entire system each minute.  This rate of circulation, called the cardiac output, supplies the needs of all organs and tissues of the body with nutrients and oxygen each minute.  The same circulating volume also removes waste products from the respiring cells and delivers them to excretory organs (e.g. carbon dioxide is exhausted by the lungs, excess water and electrolytes are excreted by the kidneys).  Under steady state, homeostatic conditions, the rates of supply and demand for oxygen, as one example, are equal and the body is in physiological harmony for oxygen.  But what happens if we ‘punch a hole’ in this circulatory container?

When blood is lost from the circulatory system faster than it can be replaced, the person is hemorrhaging.  Hemorrhage leads to a reduced volume of circulating blood and to a state of hypovolemia (low blood volume).  Hypovolemia causes a fall in blood pressure and reduced supply of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues.  Without the homeostatic mechanisms described by Cannon and others this person could bleed to death.  With homeostasis the proper physiological adjustments will be made and the person will survive.  

Beyond humans: animal intelligence
Solomon said this about the ants.  “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise”.  (Proverbs 6:6)  And, “the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer” (Proverbs 30:25).  While thinking about animal intelligence one biologist wrote that ants are so much like humans that they are an embarrassment to us. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies to war, use chemical warfare (sprays) to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labour, and endlessly exchange information. The world of the ant has been intensely scrutinized in recent decades.  And the notion that ants demonstrate signs of cognition has not been lost on these investigations.  It is increasingly clear that some scientists have taken King Solomon’s advice to heart. 

Among ants, chemical communication can be compared to the human use of auditory, tactile and visual communication.  We shake hands to greet one another and we give directions using fingers, arms, head nods and other gestures.  In ants however, there is no cultural transmission of communication.  For them everything must be encoded in their genes.  In humans only basic instincts are carried in the genes of a new-born.  Additional skills must be learned from other members of the community as the child grows and develops. It might seem that this cultural continuity gives us a great advantage over ants.  However, ants’ fungus-farming and aphid-herding crafts are sophisticated when compared to the agricultural skills of humans millennia or even centuries ago.  The farming methods of ants have at least been sustainable since Solomon’s time. 

Intelligently, ants do not litter the environment with plastic bags, sandwich wrappers, plastic bottles and cigarette butts.  Moreover, recent evidence suggests that the crop farming of ants might be more sophisticated and adaptable than was originally thought.  Ants were farmers millennia before humans were.  Ants cannot digest the cellulose in leaves (a problem) but some fungi can. Therefore, ants purposely cultivate these fungi in their colonies and nests.  The ants then bring the fungi leaves to feed on, and use them (the fungi) as a source of food (problem solved).  

Farmer ants secrete antibiotics to control other fungi that might act as weeds.  They also spread waste to fertilize their crops.  It was once thought that the fungus ants cultivate was a single species sustained from the distant past.  But this is apparently not the case.  Scientists recently screened the genetic makeup of 862 different subspecies of fungi taken from ants' nests and found them to be highly diverse.  These scientists (myrmecologists) concluded that ants are continuously domesticating new species of fungi.  Even more impressively, DNA analyses of the fungi suggest that ants improve or modify the fungi by regularly swapping and sharing strains with neighboring colonies.

Evidence also suggests that ants have lived in urban settings for millennia, developing and maintaining underground cities of specialized chambers, tunnels and functions.  When humans survey Mexico City, Tokyo, New York or Beijing, they are amazed at what has been accomplished by humans. Yet the magnificent books that have been published on ants since 1990 suggest that humans might also be outmatched by ants in their city/colony-building ingenuity.  For example one pair of authors describe a super-colony of the ant species, Formica yessensis, on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido, Japan. This megalopolis was reported to be composed of 360 million workers and a million queens living in 4,500 interconnected nests across a territory of 2.7 square kilometers.

Such enduring and intricately meshed levels of technical achievement outshine by far anything achieved by the distant ancestors of humans.  We hail as masterpieces the cave paintings in southern France and elsewhere that date back some 20,000 years.  However, according to myrmecologists ant societies similar to those of today existed more than seventy million years ago.  
Other recent investigations have found evidence that ants can transmit technically-complex messages. Scouting ants who have located food in a maze return to inform and mobilize foraging teams.  As part of an experimental design, two groups of ants, scouts and foragers, were allowed to engage in contact sessions, at the end of which the scout was removed in order to observe what the foraging team would do without her.  Commonly, the foragers navigated to the exact spot in the maze where the food had been found by the scout.  These investigations have since focused on whether the route through the maze is communicated as a sequence of left and right turns, or as messages of compass bearing and distances covered.  

While walking to work one morning, I noticed a robin with a worm in his beak.  I wondered how robins find worms.  We have all noticed foraging robins hop several times, stop, cock their heads, then lunge at the ground. After driving their bills into the soil they retrieve an earthworm and consume it or take it to feed their nestlings.  I’ve guessed that robins either hear, see or feel movements at the ground’s surface.  I have since learned that predatory birds (which robins are; among other living invertebrates they also prey on earthworms) use smell, sight, sound, and possibly mechanical cues to find prey.  One group of investigators conducted a controlled experiment in an aviary.  In that study four American robins found buried worms in the absence of sight, smell and vibration.  This suggested the use of sound to locate their prey.  Their success in finding buried worms was significantly reduced by the presence of background white noise that obscured the birds’ ability to hear.  

I met my wife when she was riding her quarter horse, Mac Eb.  This was at the Lincoln County Fair in Afton, Wyoming, August, 1964.  Marlene was an attractive teenage barrel racer.  Her horse’s name came from sire and dam, Mr. Eb and Scarlet Mac, both registered names among quarter horses of the time in Lincoln County.  I’ve asked Marlene what signs of intelligence she observed in her father’s quarter horses, including Mac Eb.  She was taught to bring a bucket with a small amount of grain to the corral/pasture whenever she wanted to ride Mac Eb.  Compared to hay…“grain is a cookie to them”, Marlene said.  Shaking a grain-containing bucket will either entice the horse to come or force him to run away.  Both are signs of intelligence (yes, I want the cookie; no I don’t feel like being ridden today).

On June 6, 2015, American Pharoah (mistakenly misspelled by the owner, Ahmed Zayat of Teaneck, New Jersey) became the first horse to win the coveted Tipple Crown in thirty seven years.  The thoroughbred was just the twelfth horse to accomplish this feat in the 147-year history of the Belmont Stakes.  Then, on June 9, 2018, Mike Smith riding Justify won the Trophy making two such winners in just three years (the first time this had been done since the 1970s). Mike, at age fifty two, became the oldest jockey to win the Preakness Stakes and Triple Crown. 

When the gates opened at the Belmont Stakes on June 6, 2015, Victor Espinoza took American Pharoah to the lead position on the rail within 2-3 strides and never relinquished the position or lead.  About two minutes later and heading into the final turn, horse and jockey left the field of seven others behind as they sailed through the 1,097-yard stretch to the finish line in less than 25 seconds.  During this historic race American Pharoah wore makeshift earplugs.  Both trainer and rider believed the horse was distracted by the noise of the crowds (e.g. Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes).  By stuffing cotton in his ears before the race, they believed the horse was less likely to get distracted.  Whether or not the earplugs helped is anyone’s guess.  However, that horses have intelligence can hardly be argued.

When measuring equine intelligence, some investigators begin with three assessments: 1.) scope of learning: defines the cognitive ability of a horse to solve increasingly complex problems.  2.) rate of learning: a quantitative measure of the time required to learn a task.  And, 3.) retention of learning: the ability to remember the learned behavior. In addition The Guide Horse Foundation has developed other measures of equine intelligence.  These are the ear reflex, socialization, and the Umveg tests. 
Ear reflex Index---All horses have a range of ear motion of approximately 170 degrees, and more intelligent horses demonstrate more frequent and independent ear motion.  To administer this test in the field one trainer stands near the left shoulder and another trainer stands at the right flank of a horse.  As the trainers walk around the horse, a more intelligent horse will follow the trainers with its ears, tracking the trainers’ motions independently and rapidly from opposite ears.  A less intelligent horse fixes its ears in the neutral position (facing 30 degrees forward).

Response to Socialization---As a herd animal, horses communicate frequently with other horses and learn a variety of social interactions.  A more intelligent horse learns quickly to respond to social cues in a disciplined and masterful way.  Horses also communicate in various ways, including vocalizations such as nickering, squealing or whinnying; touching through mutual grooming or nuzzling; smelling and sniffing; and through body language.  In addition, horses use a combination of ear position, neck and head height, movement, and foot stomping or tail swishing to communicate.  

Two horses who have never met commonly approach each other with their necks extended and their head’s bowed (unless they are wild mustang stallions competing for the same harem).  They touch noses and exchange scents by blowing into each other’s nostrils.  Once the introduction is completed they nicker, squeal or whinny at each other.  Horses are also concerned about their status in a hierarchy and during this phase they might challenge each other, sometimes striking out with their front legs.  This behavior continues until one of the horses shows signs of submission.  

Umveg Testing---This is the process of taking a detour in order to reach a goal.  In horses, the ability to do an Umveg is an undisputed sign of superior intelligence.  In one test the horse is lead to a particular side of an open-ended, ten foot wire fence.  Next, the horse is lead to the other side of the fence and a treat is placed into a bowl directly opposite the horse.  An intelligent horse will turn away from the food and circumnavigate the fence to get the food, while a less intelligent horse will stand on the opposite side of the fence and paw the ground.  
In a related test a bucket with a small quantity of grain is presented to the horse.  Then, the grain is dumped onto the ground and the bucket is turned upside down covering the grain.  A pole is placed, about 12-18 inches off the ground, between the horse and the bucket.  A smart horse will walk around the pole, sniff the ground and bucket to confirm the grain is there, then push the bucket over with his nose and nibble at the grain.  A horse of less intelligence will remain on the opposite side of the pole.  Or, he might step over the pole, usually knocking it off its stands, then sniff the ground/bucket before knocking the bucket over.  These various responses are ranked and compared with other tests of intelligence to classify the horse as more or less intelligent.  Because of their superior intelligence some horses are being trained to replace guide dogs (guide horses; small breeds that don’t require much space or large quantities of food and water).  

Unintelligent human acts 
Try to solve this problem.  Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?  Possible answers are:  yes, no, or cannot be determined.  More than eighty per cent of people answer this question incorrectly. If you concluded that the answer cannot be determined, you are one of them.  The correct answer is, yes, a married person is looking at an unmarried person.  Most of us believe that we need to know if Anne is married to answer the question. But think about all of the possibilities. If Anne is unmarried, then a married person (Jack) is looking at an unmarried person (Anne). If Anne is married, then a married person (Anne) is looking at an unmarried person (George).  Either way, the answer is yes.  Most people have the intelligence to figure this out if you tell them to carefully consider all the possibilities. But unprompted, they won’t bring their full mental faculties to bear on the problem.

Failing to bring one’s full mental faculties to bear on problems arguably contributes to many unintelligent human actions.  Consider the images of a fallen global leader awaiting arraignment for alleged sexual molestation.  Allegations that toppled Dominic Straus Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, underscore a stunning capacity for unintelligent actions by otherwise intelligent people who should know better.  Such unintelligent acts occur with numbing frequency.  A U.S. Congressman seeks trysts over the internet; a prominent scientist fabricates data; millionaires cheat on taxes; a ranking general undermines the Commander-in-Chief;  hapless investors turn over life savings to swindlers like Berny Madoff.  And, more recently, Alabama Governor, Robert Bentley, resigned in shame after mistakenly sending e-mailed love notes to his wife that were intended for his mistress and lover.  

Journalist Jonah Lehrer rose to stardom by age 31. He wrote for prestigious publications like the Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker.  In June of 2012, Lehrer got caught plagiarizing. Unlike most cases of plagiarism, though, Lehrer copied his own writing. He reused whole paragraphs from Wall Street Journal pieces that he wrote for The New Yorker.  In a New York Times interview, Lehrer apologized for the plagiarism, saying it was just plain laziness that drove him to duplicate his work across the two publications.  

That alone might not have been enough to permanently damage his career.  After all, the words he copied were his own, even if it was unethical to use them without his publisher's knowledge.  However, about a month later the magazine Tablet accused him of making up Bob Dylan quotes for "Imagine" and then lying about it.  Tablet reporter Michael C. Moynihan questioned Lehrer about some of the quotes in "Imagine," and Lehrer told him that the quotes came from an old interview that had not been made public.  Lehrer later admitted that he made up the quotes, and that when Moynihan questioned their veracity he panicked and lied about the source.  When the story broke, "Imagine" publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt pulled the e-book and stopped all shipments of the book's physical copy.  Lehrer resigned in disgrace as a writer for The New Yorker.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield published an article in the journal Lancet in 1998 that was based, largely, on fabricated data and falsifications.  He had been paid $674,000 by lawyers hoping to sue the manufacturers of vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella.  Wakefield reported, falsely, to have found a link between autism and the vaccinations.  The British General Medical Council revoked his license to practice medicine.  The influence of Wakefield’s lies and falsified data are still having an impact.  As parents in the past several years have opted not to get their children vaccinated against these childhood diseases, a spike in cases of measles has been reported. 

 President Bill Clinton apologized to the American public and to the world on December 11, 1998, only after it was incontrovertible that he had extramarital sexual relationships with staff member Monica Lewinsky.  Initially, Clinton vehemently denied having any sexual relations with Lewinsky, but as the evidence against him became insurmountable he had to admit his immoral and unintelligent actions.  CIA Director, General David Patraeus also initially denied his extramarital sexual affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.  His final admission led to his resignation and shame as he fell from grace.

Judgment, if not plain common sense, flees at immense cost and consequences destroy reputations, careers and freedom (some lead to prison terms).  Catastrophic failures of judgment share common threads including but not limited to inflated egos and unchecked arrogance.  Sadly, the same unrestrained drive that pushes people to succeed can also push them to catastrophe.

In summary, any two or more people can argue the definitions of intelligence.  They can also debate the existence of both animal and plant intelligence.  Here I have tried to include the ability to identify and solve problems as a sign of intelligence.  If you agree with this definition then you probably also agree that ants and horses, among a long list of other animals, display signs of intelligence and the ability to solve problems.  

Preface
1 Intelligence and Problem Solving
2 Physiology of Light and Vision
3 Hearing and the Cochlea
4 Proprioception and Balance
5 Acid Base and pH Regulation
6 Cardiovascular and Hemodynamics
7 Respiration and Its Control
8 Kidneys and Body Water
9 Gut and Nutrient Flow