Hello there my fellow Morons Idiots and Imbeciles respectively. I, your fellow Idiot, am here today to discuss something that's been bothering me for years now. IQ and it's correlation with intellect.

As stated in the title of this post IQ is not a measure of intelligence. It does not even attempt to measure intelligence. That's not what the test was originally for. It is a test that can measure some capabilities of the brain, however these capabilities have little to do with what we call "Intelligence".

If you are already upset, then please keep reading. Hopefully you will pass away from a heart attack or a stroke, and we'll both be happy.

Anyway, why do people view IQ scores as a measurement of intellect? There are several reasons for this misconception. First off, let me clarify some things. When I use the term "IQ" I do not mean intelligence, and when I use words like "Intelligence" or "intellect", I do not mean IQ. I'm not even going to attempt to define what intelligence is here, as it is often a subjective measure, so let's keep it as that for now. When I say "Intelligence" feel free to impose your own subjective interpretation of what "intelligence" is to you.

Now that we got the semantics out of the way, let's get to the meat of it. So what is IQ anyway?

It all started back in the early 1900s, and I mean very early 1900s, like 1905 kind of early. But to be completely honest, it started even earlier. Do you know what Phrenology is? If you don't, let me explain. "Phrenology is a pseudoscience that involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.[1][2] It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.[3] It was said that the brain was composed of different muscles, so those that were used more often were bigger, resulting in the different skull shapes. This provided reasoning for the common presence of bumps on the skull in different locations. The brain "muscles" not being used as frequently remained small and were therefore not present on the exterior of the skull." That's the gist of it, and don't try to fact check me, it is literally an excerpt from Wikipedia. So people tried to measure intelligence based on arbitrary traits for a long long time now. And like with Phrenology, these tests were mostly quackery and prejudice disguised as an easily debunkable pseudoscience.

"But you didn't explain what IQ is!" I hear you whine in your girly voice, raising your womanly fist in the air in outrage. I'm getting to that. The modern IQ test is based on the Binet–Simon Intelligence Test which itself was not supposed to measure intelligence, even though it's in the name. "The Binet–Simon Intelligence Test was the first intelligence test that could be used to predict scholarly performance and which was widely accepted by the fields of psychology and psychiatry." that's another quote from Wikipedia. So, even though it has the words "Intelligence Test" in it, it is not, an never was a way to test intelligence. Binet himself warned against using the test to measure objective intellect. “The scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and therefore cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured.” -Alfred Binet

"Okay, you explained what IQ isn't, but you still haven't said anything about what it is." You might say, your irrational female mind now calmed by the presence of facts and logic. What IQ really is and was, is a measure of not intellect, but intellectual stagnation. It was supposed to tell the tester if a child requires additional help in studies. It's not supposed to measure how smart you are, it's literally the opposite, it was supposed to measure how dumb you are. Not that if you get a high score you are stupid, but if you measure intelligence by a test that's supposed to screen school children for stunted mental development, you're doing something wrong.

So, there it is, IQ is not a measure of intelligence. It does tell us about a person't mental faculties in several areas, but it does not, and never did measure objective intelligence.

So, is there a test that does measure objective intelligence? No. And there probably never will be. Because it would need to measure all the potential mental areas there are, and we can't even define what these include or how many there could be.

Now that I mansplained intelligence to you, please feel free to soothe your raging uterus with a dose of smooth jazz and glass of wine, because now you can rest soundly knowing that the silly little number you got assigned in school doesn't measure your objective intelligence. It never did. You are a person, not a number. You are valuable no matter what some arbitrary test says about you, and you matter, no matter what people say. So please, take my silly joking with a barrel of salt, and enjoy existence, knowing your objective value is up to you, and not anybody else.