What intelligence is not

This paper begins by giving evidence for a dichotomy of views on the attribute of intelligence. One view claims a continuum in intelligence through all agents and the other holds that there is a fundamental difference between agents that can be intelligent and those that cannot. These views are compared and contrasted through logical arguments derived from a basic assumption, namely, agents wholly governed by necessity are not intelligent. After defining the assumption, it is shown that the set of agents governed by necessity is closed and therefore no agents made up wholly of agents in this set are intelligent. It is also shown that agents that have the possibility of being intelligent pass this possibility, under certain conditions, on to an agent of which they are a member. From these results it is concluded that if all agents are governed by necessity, including humans, then none can be intelligent in the sense that they have choice, responsibility for actions, intent or understanding. And if humans are intelligent such that they possess these attributes, then they are not governed by necessity and are fundamentally different from machines