02/03/2026
We tend to define intelligence through human traits—language, logic, problem-solving that looks familiar to us. But intelligence may be simpler and broader than that: the ability to perceive an environment, respond to it, and adapt over time. Many systems in nature already do this without brains as we understand them. If intelligence is about relationship rather than cognition, it may exist in forms that feel completely foreign. That unfamiliarity doesn’t make it lesser—only differently expressed. Perhaps our challenge is learning to recognize intelligence without requiring it to resemble us.
