I'm still accepting beta testing requests for this game, but please put both your requests and feedback under this post, as I'm more likely to see it here.
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?
I think I've heard intelligence described as how fast you can learn, or how quickly you can pick up and store knowledge. This doesn't make sense, though, as a computer has an IQ of 0, yet we can transfer information onto it with a USB drive without 'increasing' a computer's IQ at all. This would also mean someone with no problem-solving ability who was still able to memorize things with astonishing ease would be highly intelligent. Subsequently, autistic children who have a special skill (such as a child who falls behind severely in most subjects but excels marvelously in one subject) could be categorized as intelligent. Within that definition of intelligence, there's so much debate going on but there are so many people that make really stupid decisions no matter how much they know.
So is intelligence your ability to apply the knowledge you have? Warmer. You might call that 'problem solving', and indeed people who can solve problems and puzzles very quickly, and oftentimes with unconditional answers and an ability to think outside the box, are thought of as intelligent, resourceful, or even ingenious. But if you tell someone the solution to a puzzle, they can't solve that puzzle without instantly recalling the answer that was given to them. So what trait does is possessed by an individual who can come up with their own answers to puzzles despite how diverse the puzzles are? (Diverse meaning math, physics, arranging things, etc.)
Adaptability. Adaptability is what gives us the edge over all of the creatures on Earth, and it's what makes us intelligent. We adapt to our environment like no other species... Now you may be saying a virus or a cockroach is adaptable, but their adaptions are genetic. In fact, a cockroach doesn't adapt at all! It's simply resistant to various sources of danger. As for viruses, they don't have to change their behavior at all; they mutate and continue the same pattern of behavior. We're the only creatures that physically change our behavior based on our environment.
In terms of intellectually and socially, more intelligent people tend to adapt better as well, although some are much more adaptable than others. People that are willing to see things differently and form new neural pathways are simply smarter.
Now for the origin of stupidity: Someone who can't adapt is a victim of our surrounding environment. Someone who easily buys into tradition and works happily under a boring or repetitive lifestyle is usually less intelligent, and are positively creating FEWER neural connections than someone with more variety in their life. However, many people remain largely unintelligent, or fail to live up to their potential because we still have a tendency to repeat ourselves the way other organisms do, and the organisms before them, and the physical principles before THEM. We live physically within a cycle of birth, maturity, reproduction, and death, while living a cycle of consuming food and producing excrement. Our lives our dependent upon water and sunlight, which go in a cycle of evaporation and rain. Our planet revolves in circles, and we have a repetition of seasons, as well as a cycle of day and night. Music is also very much a product of our life in this universe, as it too is dependent on repetition.
Whether we adopt these mementos of repetition consciously, subconsciously, or if we are metaphysically linked to the world around us can be debated.
SECRETARY REVIEW:
Secretary is about a former mental patient coming home from an institution (Lee) who tries to find a job. She finds one as a secretary working under a lawyer (Edward) and their relationship takes a more personal turn from there. Thankfully the film is not boring, as it's spliced with scenes depicting BDSM and other sex stuff, but it lacks what the film is desperately trying to provide. Secretary was written with the intention of showing the viewers that the D/s scene isn't as alien as so many people make it out to be. No matter how rough it gets or how much rope you use, doms and subs care about each other as much as any other couple. What annoys me about this is that it fails to deliver this, having little middle room between romantic scenes and scenes that are just plain wild, and the film portrays little connection between the two. As if to patch this with more romance, the last few scenes of the film become increasingly cliche and lovey-dovey. Furthermore, the film is geared very much women who are new to the D/s scene entirely. I say women because the film exerts tons of effort into making Edward as appealing as possible, almost to a fault because of how overdone it is. And the bondage itself is never really discussed that much, and there were no conversations about social norms or acceptance at all. All in all the film seemed very empty and the scenes were sometimes cliche lovey-dovey shit or borderline pornographic, but seldom in between. Interesting idea but poor execution. 6/10
