Intelligence should be a mass noun.

· Bits and Bobs 5/5/25
  • Intelligence should be a mass noun.
    • A mass noun is something like "water" or "sand".
    • The noun means a collection of the underlying thing.
    • Intelligence as we usually think about it is a centralized phenomena with agency.
      • It's hard not to anthropomorphize it in that form.
      • If it's centralized you have to worry about it.
        • Could it harm me?
        • What is its intention?
        • Does it maintain a dossier on me?
        • Is it more powerful than me?
    • Intelligence as a mass noun is an emergent, distributed force with no center.
    • Each individual enchanted speck isn't that powerful, but the whole is way more than the sum of its parts.
    • It's harder for the mass noun of intelligence to plot against you.
    • I want an intelligence that flows like water.