The Future of Intelligence: The Central Meaning-Making Unit of Intelligence in the Mind, the Brain, and Artificial Intelligence

This paper focuses on general intelligence, g. We first point to broadly accepted facts about g: it is robust, reliable, and sensitive to learning. We then summarize conflicting theories about its nature and development (Mutualism, Process Overlap Theory, and Dynamic Mental Field Theory) and suggest how future research may resolve their disputes. A model is proposed for g involving a core meaning-making mechanism, noetron, drawing on Alignment, Abstraction, and Cognizance, perpetually generating new mental content. Noetron develops through several levels of control: episodic attentional inferential truth epistemic control in infancy, preschool, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, respectively. Finally, we propose an agenda for future brain, assuming a brain noetron, and artificial intelligence research, assuming an artificial noetron, that might uncover the underlying brain mechanisms of g and generate artificial general intelligence.