Steven Pinker says intelligence is bounded, not a limitless scalar like height
SydSteyerhart · x · 2026-07-27
The post quotes Steven Pinker arguing that intelligence is not an unbounded scalar like height.
His point is that people often imagine future AI as simply getting “10,000 IQ,” but that framing is misleading. Intelligence is more like a conversion ratio with an optimum bound: gains become marginal once systems are already close to the efficient frontier.
He uses the metaphor that improving intelligence is less like making a tower taller and more like making a ball rounder—after a point, further improvement yields diminishing returns.
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