The various projects that comprise the 45-years old Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) raise two important issues

How can we tell the artificial from the natural? How can we be sure to distinguish Alien artifacts from naturally-occurring objects? How can we tell apart with certainty Alien languages from random noise or other natural signals?

I always wonder if the 'experts' who appear on the morning shows (The Today Show; Good Morning America; CBS Morning Show) have any idea that they frequently sound stupid to perhaps half the people who are listening to them.

A Special Note on Naturalist/Existential Intelligences

By: Dr. Yehia A. Ibrahim, Professor & Rational Emotive Behavior Thinker (REBT)


Howard Gardner has opened a new era of human intelligence. The most important characteristic of this era is the multiplicity and uniqueness of individual intelligence. It is not clear and may never be, as to where those multiple intelligences are located in the human brain. However, the outcome of those intelligences is observable and applicable either solely or synergistically. Gardner's list of multiple intelligences originally contained seven members (intrapersonal, interpersonal, logical, linguistic, visual, kinesthetic, and musical). He has recently discussed three candidates (naturalist, existential, and spiritual intelligences), and decide to only add the naturalist to his list. Other investigators add to Gardner's list the ninth intelligence, i.e., the existential. We here shed some light on the eighth and ninth intelligences, along with 20 questions that existentially-intelligent people may ask. Asking those questions can never be mentally structured without an instrumental help from their logical intelligence. This shows how those spheres of intelligence work.

Evolutionary Configuration of Multiple
Intelligences: A Tentative Hypothesis


By: Dr. Yehia A. Ibrahim, Ph.D.

Professor at Assiut University, Egypt &
Rational Emotive Behavior Thinker (REBT)
Email address: dr_yehia_ibrahim@hotmail.com

There are many theories and views of human intelligence; two of them have received considerable attention, i.e., (1) Alfred Binet's of math and language intelligence; and (2) Howard Gardner of multiple intelligences. Gardner's system now includes the following intelligence spheres: Verbal-Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Visual-Spatial, Musical-Rhythmic, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalist. Other investigators have added Existential intelligence to Gardner's list. This article focuses on three aspects (1) a new definition of multiple intelligences, (2) a new list of multiple intelligences, extended to 15 spheres; and (3) a tentative theory of spatially configured intelligences within the three parts of Paul MacLean's brain model. Our new definition states that: "Human intelligence is a natural, adaptable, cognitive system of how people perceive, gather and process information, how they structure their learning and thinking, how they extract meaning and build knowledge from their experience, how they make decisions, and ultimately how they intelligently respond to events and run their life." I also introduce the reader to my tentative meta theory of multiple intelligences. My theory considers 15 intelligence spheres equally divided, at least partially, between the three brains of the triune model, i.e., the brain stem (reptilian brain), the limbic lobes (mammalian brain), and the cerebrum (neo-mammalian brain).