Reflect on Charlie’s experiences and the concept of increasing one’s intelligence through surgery. If such a thing were possible, how would you feel about everyone in the world being made into geniuses? Consider both the “fairness” and consequences.
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First of all, the term “genius” may not apply to these circumstances. A genius is defined as “a person having an exceptional natural capacity of intellect.” Increasing one’s intelligence through surgical means definitely does not, I would think, count as “natural.”
These small issues aside, I am wholly against this concept of increasing mental capacity with surgery. This idea brings to mind a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon in which Calvin makes a trip to the doctor. The doctor simply opens up his head, pours in some stuff, and tells Calvin,” There, that’s everything you need to know for the rest of your life.” He would not have to go to school or learn anything new.
If this happened to the majority of the population, terms such as “smart,” “brilliant,” and even the above-mentioned “genius” would have no meaning. If everybody had an IQ of, say, 200, how would we know what defines a smart person?
People wouldn’t even have to work hard in order to learn things, in order to get a good job, in order to get into a good college. School would not even be necessary, as a simple surgery would provide all the intelligence one needed. It would be impossible to tell who tried hard or who didn’t, since everybody’s intelligence level would be extraordinarily high already.
This also would not be fair to poorer people who may not be able to increase their intelligence by surgery simply because of the cost. They would have to learn the normal way; that is to say, with time, effort, and hard work. These people would still be considered not as smart even if they were, by normal standards, brilliant, and might be made to do menial work instead. On the whole, increasing intelligence levels artificially is just wrong. There’s a reason why it is “artificial”—it would be messed up.
Artificial intelligence is a very delicate thing to tinker with. While it may make some people feel good about themselves, there are many consequences to artificially increasing the level of one’s intelligence.
In Charlie Gordon’s case, he was not able to socialize with others because once his intelligence level surpassed the possibility of a normal human he could no longer make small talk or use common socializing skills. But the effects were more severe than this. Later on his rapid decrease of intelligence led him into a life of misery and longing for something that was slipping through his fingers like grains of sand. He became frustrated with himself for not being able to remember what used to be so clear to him. Charlie even entered a state of depression and had thoughts of suicide. The artificial increase of intelligence also was likely to cause Charlie to die before his time had come. In Charlie Gordon’s case, it was certainly not fair that he had been put through all of the mental stress that came as a side effect to artificial intelligence.
Even if the experiment was perfected so that none of the effects Charlie experienced would occur again, the artificial increase of intelligence is unnatural and unjust. Men and women weren’t meant to experience this level of abnormal intelligence. They would never learn the value of hard work, and would take their brains for granted. People could figure out new ways to cause harm to others. There would be many new inventions, some beneficial, some destructive. The world would enter a state of chaos.
If someone were to raise their intelligence by means of a surgery, everyone would want to do the same. The status of being a genius, the fact that you’re smarter than anyone could hope to imagine is very alluring. People would be solving complicated theorems left and right, we would have more hi-tech equipment because everyone’s intelligence put together could create a solution to all of mankind’s problems. It would change the world, as we know it, creating equality among humans. But would everyone be granted equal intelligence? If the surgery were less effective on certain people, then they would be discriminated against for being of a lesser intelligence. There would also be severe consequences. The phrase, “knowledge is power “ would really come into play. People would fight for more knowledge, perhaps getting the surgery multiple times to increase their knowledge tenfold. That could boil over into “brain wars” or fights among powerful people. Others might use their brains to create horrific devices built to destroy political opponents, countries, or even the Earth as a whole. Supreme knowledge would also nullify the use of the word “genius”. If everybody was brilliant, then no one would be.
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