Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word intelligence did not exist as a technical term in the English language until the early 1900s. Before this period, philosophers like Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke preferred the word understanding to describe the faculty of comprehension.
Alfred Binet developed the first practical method to measure intelligence in the early 20th century. His work was initially designed to identify children who needed special educational support rather than to rank human worth.
The scientific consensus firmly states that genetics does not explain average differences in IQ test performance between racial groups. Environmental factors continue to be scrutinized as the primary influence on these differences.
Wolfgang Köhler conducted research on apes in the early 1900s to reveal that chimpanzees could use tools and solve complex puzzles. His findings challenged the belief that intelligence was a strictly human trait.
Botanists argue that plants possess intelligence capable of sensing and modeling their environment to ensure survival. Plants can discriminate between positive and negative experiences, register memories of past events, and engage in sophisticated cost-benefit analysis to mitigate environmental stressors.
Current AI systems remain limited by a lack of common sense and an inability to handle ambiguity. They often fail at tasks that require real humanlike reasoning or an understanding of the physical and social world.