‘Receptive Intelligence' is the critical factor for all active learning in human beings
In the world we live in, intelligence is measured in multiple metrics. Competence, quality, efficiency and result orientation are some essential outcomes of intelligence. I strongly believe ‘active-learning’ is at the core of all competencies that one acquires across many phases in life. I hence propose that ‘Receptive Intelligence’ is the critical factor for all active-learning in human beings.
The natural or nurtured capability of an individual to acutely focus on reception from one’s immediate and remote environment, cancelling out all interference is ‘Active Reception’. All knowledge compounded as intelligence acquired through this method is ‘Receptive Intelligence’.
The human species is the only one to evolve rapidly into a ‘thinking’ species from a ‘feeling’ species. Being on top of the food-chain is no random coincidence. It is the outcome of a prolonged period of evolution centred around superior ‘Reception’.
All reception is essentially the function of sensory perception. The species which utilised its sensory perception for outcomes bigger than fulfilling bare minimum physical instincts has evolved into a superior thinking species. The rest remained ‘feeling’ species.
As Homo Sapiens evolved into a complex thinking species with aspirations beyond fulfilling their menial physical needs, ‘Reception’ became critical to its constant and consistent rise. The contemporary human world today has evolved through stages of intelligence over centuries where the human enterprise has moved away from caves to social habitats, built machines for mass production and automation, and is today on its way to achieving inter-planetary exploration and artificial intelligence. All this was only possible with ‘Reception’ as the core, for all acquisition of intelligence to survive and thrive.
This column is just a brief outline of the vast subject, which deals with ancient human competence. I will highlight few important factors which explain the massive impact ‘Receptive Intelligence’ has on human excellence.
It will sound quite cruel to say, ‘Listen or Die’. However, that is an evolutionary fact. Those who adapted evolved, those who resisted perished. It is not very hard to understand and imply that those who adapted had better ‘Reception’ capabilities to assess changes in the immediate and remote environment, than those who perished.
Listening is not just an auditory function. It is a sensory competence for survival and development. We as humans have come so far, because we listened. When we stop listening, we are bound to die (need not be literal).
Look at the national and political scenarios of any nation and assess if listening as a collective and individual human function is valued or devalued over years. Look at the social conditions around you and assess for yourself if listening as a human competence is growing or declining gradually in the society you live.
Look at your family and assess, how much time is spent into listening by any member of your family. Finally assess your own personal condition and measure the importance and value you attach to this core human function ‘listening’. I am sure, you will be quite shocked at the outcome of your honest assessment.
Death need not be literal. If the sheer spirit of human development and its core functions deteriorate, it is no different from actual death. This is a serious challenge, though not very conspicuous, that is evolving gradually and poses a serious threat to human development.
As a human regresses into self-inflicted sensory deterioration through multiple environmental interferences, the capabilities which have evolved this species can dissipate. There is already lot of medical evidence and scientific data pointing to lowered sensory acuity across the world, especially in modern urban societies.
Lowered sensory acuity directly results in low level reception and thereby reduced learnings and applicable knowledge from the immediate environment. I am foreseeing the deterioration of ‘natural intelligence’, as the human enterprise is racing towards ‘artificial intelligence’.
The lack of sensory focus in majority young adults, dangerously low listening aptitude, serious electronic addiction, unusually low comprehension, is reflective of tough times ahead. Social competition, mediocrity, insecurity, comparison, identity rush, indebtedness with unviable lifestyles have already stressed the sensory perception in human adults.
The next 20 years will showcase massive disruption in societal framework, institutions of marriage and family, workplace dynamics, competitiveness, and of course in the quality of ‘Receptive Intelligence’.
(The writer is Chief Spokesperson of BJP, Telangana State and Organizational Strategist. The views expressed are personal.)
