father's Alzheimer's got serious, when it became obvious (to me at least)
My mother-in-law's Dementia is very bad, and I had a Great Aunt that was very bad.
The I/O theory isn't incompatible, actually. But of course it's not a proper theory as there is nothing that it predicts.
The answer is that we don't understand and can't measure Intelligence (IQ and Psychometric tests don't), Creativity, Sentience, Consciousness.
We have poor flawed tests for self-awareness (such as paint dot and mirror, but cats don't generally regard things in mirrors, video or behind double glazing as "real" due to lack of smell and sound).
Assumptions about tool making vs brain size etc upset by Caledonian crow. Then unexpectedly the common UK rook, if in a food deprived situation, was found to be as "clever" as the Caledonian crow at spontaneously "making and using tools". There seems to be no correlation between brain size and ability. There was case of French Civil servant (and others) with very little brain and seemed normal.
Dementia and other neurological conditions seem poorly understood.
Language is puzzling too. There is giant gap between any animal capable of a vocabulary and communication and a human child.
A very small number of people disagree with Chomsky's idea of Universal Grammar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomsky
Did you know there is supposedly NO culture that doesn't have kissing? (I mean more than "hello" but "Mmm you're nice").
If we ever do meet Aliens wouldn't it be intriguing if they all had bilateral symmetry, four limbs, two eyes on head, similar deep grammar and many aspects of similar body language?
Evolutionists would claim "Convergent Evolution" and "believers" would say "what did you expect god to do?" It wouldn't "prove" anything. Just be amazing.
