Intelligence and loneliness

S.A.M.

S.A.M.

uniquely dreadful
Valued Senior Member
While reading a ridiculously fluff novel recently, I came across a profound statement:

The greater the intelligence, the greater the capacity for loneliness

Is this true? Just offhand, without looking too much into it, it seems to be too simplistic. While intelligent people have a greater capacity for enjoying their own company - does this automatically make them more likely to be lonesome?
 
The more we know, the more we know that everyone around us does not know; the more isolated you become.
 
jmpet said:
Um, you're making no sense, draqon. What a surprise.
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You do not understand me because you do not understand my perspective.

Let me give you an analogy a person who has an empty basket goes around the farm to pick up the apples from the trees, as his basket becomes full he gets a taste and a bite from each of the apple in the pie he will make. However it depends on how he treats the apples and if he bakes the pie right. After all if he forgets to look in the oven after 4 hours of cooking, the pie will burn and all he will get of taste of the apples are ashes. However if he treats the pie right he will taste the apples there just right. So you see the more apples he collects the more he understands of each apple and enjoys it more, the only difference is what and how we enjoys those apples.

So an intelligent person who will know each and everyone of the many people in town will simply be face with a choice on how to treat the data, to help each of those people out and embrace his knowledge for the good of many or simply despise the people he so well knows for all the evil deeds and thoughts they got.

How will you treat the apples you collect? What will you taste afterward?
 
From my own experience, the more I learn about people and their simplisitic thought processes, the more I separate myself from them. I dont think intelligent folks are "alone" because they cant find anyone to keep them company. I think they are "alone" because they do not want to be surrounded by idiots, so they isolate themselves. That's the truth in my case anyway....just sayin. :shrug:

sidenote: when I come across someone that I can really vibe with mentally, I keep them around. It's not often though....
 
I'm looking at it from the perspective of the person who feels lonely.

Alone is not synonymous with lonely. You can be lonely at a party, in a crowd, in the midst of a sea of people. You can be at peace in solitude.

So what makes an intelligent person feel lonely?

There are biochemical correlates to loneliness, which I will go into later, but I wanted to get the subjective viewpoints first.
 
How do you know that what those intelligent people experience is loneliness?

I was once clearing a house (of books) from my mom's friend. Her husband died but left more than 5000 books in house scattered all across the house. It was insane how many there were math books, science, everything you can think of was there. He was a math major with PHD in math and was "in his own world", as the wife recalls. When I asked if he was lonely, she replied that by all means no he was not. She used to spy on him when he was alone reading books or wondering about something in a room he was always smiling, his mind wondered off somewhere far beyond the house or the city where they lived. He saw world in such a different perspective that it would be cruel to define it by something simplistic as "loneleness".
 
I suppose a simple answer would be that there arent many people that understand the workings of his/her mind, and that can make a person feel lonely at times. Sometimes humans have the urge to merge or feel a connection with another human, and when there arent any around that think the way you do or understand you, it can be difficult to truly make that connection. I suppose thats where loneliness could come into play.
 
I consider myself to be somewhat above average in intelligence, though those who know me *very* well say that I'm *considerably* above average. :shrug:

But wherever I lie on the scale of intelligence, one thing is certain: I've never felt lonely/loneliness in my entire 67 years. (I cannot really assess the first three years or so. But I feel certain they were filled with TONS of interesting explorations!) ;)

I've always got tons of books and journals around and go back and read a lot of them several times. (The journal Science and Scientific American are two of my all-time favorites.) I also read the JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine. And that's not even to mention all the news outlets and information of all types to be found here on the Web.

And my point is that I've always got something interesting to think about on any one of dozens of different topics or fields of endeavor. Lonely? I don't have time to even be bothered by it. The word and it's meaning are almost not even in my vocabulary. :)
 
Loneliness is an emotion, intelligence is not.

Loneliness is a major problem for retarded children and adults. You are less likely to be lonely the higher your IQ score.
 
draqon said:
you see...my point proven. Einstein Mr. Read-Only proves that he is not lonely.
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Heh! I'm not claiming to be that smart, draqon. :D

My point is that if someone has enough knowledge and curiosity, they shouldn't have time to be lonely. Even if one is not in a position to read material (such as I was while standing guard in the military at the base bank), they can *always* occupy their mind thinking about all sort of things and trying to find solutions to problems.

Here's a couple that have been running through my mind recently. Sugar crystals in solution, refract light in specific ways. Perhaps this could be used for diabetics to check their blood sugar levels without all those punctures every day. A clamp containing a transmitter on one half and a receiver on the other could be placed over the web of the hand. It's thin enough to allow for the transmission of light.

Another possibility is perhaps starting a grass-roots campaign to considering restarting the nuclear breeder reactor program. Not only would it produce a *very* large quantity of nuclear fuel for electrical power plants, it would *greatly* reduce the quantity of exhausted fuel rods - actually, eliminate them completely - that are currently being stored in massive quantities.

And there are lots more like those...
 
Blindman said:
Loneliness is an emotion, intelligence is not.

Loneliness is a major problem for retarded children and adults. You are less likely to be lonely the higher your IQ score.
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That last statement isn't entirely true in every case. There's a LOT of truth in the expression "ignorance is bliss."
 
Read-Only said:
There's a LOT of truth in the expression "ignorance is bliss."
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Retardation does not mean ignorance. A desire to be with people does not require high intelligence. This does not mean that intelligent people cant feel loneliness but nether does it mean that intelligent people can feel more lonely, as if intelligent people can feel angrier, would be a great excuse in court.
 
Blindman said:
Retardation does not mean ignorance. A desire to be with people does not require high intelligence. This does not mean that intelligent people cant feel loneliness but nether does it mean that intelligent people can feel more lonely, as if intelligent people can feel angrier, would be a great excuse in court.
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What you are calling "retardation" is a state of impaired learning ability. And impaired learning most certainly DOES result in more ignorance since the individual cannot learn and understand as easily as do those who are not impaired. The rest of your statement is just personal opinion.
 
I'd say the greater the wisdom instead of intelligence. The wiser we get the more we see the folly in others. When that happens we can become difficult to be around if we become preachy, or we can get frustrated if others don't follow our wise counsel.

Intelligence is more along the line of curiosity, asking the right questions, which can be good conversation material.
 
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