Prudentia

Definition WARNING : All high range IQ tests are bad. What do I mean by this statement? Well, for one, I am not being derogatory. They are all, in fact, bad. However, in what sense? They are not, for one, stupid. Nor are they boring. Well?! They are not silly. However, they do not measure what they purport to measure, that is, intelligence. Still, like their psychological brethren, the official IQ test, they are flawed, better still, wobbly but wobblier still. Since they are not measuring intelligence, what exactly are they measuring? Commonsense might dictate that HRIQ tests are measuring intelligence. In fact, commonsense would be wrong. What HRIQ tests measure are people already defined by the system as intelligent, people that is, with IQs measuring at or above 130. So, what HRIQ tests are measuring is, to turn a phrase, metaintelligence . Now, we do not even begin to understand what intelligence is, artificial or otherwise, and here you go throwing metaintelligence into the mix. L...

For several centuries, Western societies have operated under an implicit anthropology: the human being is justified through work. This assumption is so deeply ingrained that we rarely recognize it as theological in origin. Yet its roots lie in the Protestant Reformation — and its cultural crystallization was famously analyzed by Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . Now artificial intelligence — especially large language models — confronts this anthropology with an unprecedented challenge. The question is no longer economic. It is anthropological. 1. What Is “Protestant Anthropology”? To understand what may be ending, we must clarify what emerged. With Martin Luther and later John Calvin , the concept of Beruf (calling) underwent a radical transformation. In medieval Christianity: Monastic life was spiritually superior. Contemplation ranked above labor. In Protestant thought: Every profession became a divine calling. Ordinary work becam...

It occurred to me (Claus D. Volko) today that LLMs could be combined with 3D printing to create objects that correspond to one's own ideas. So far, I haven't read anything about this in the media. ChatGPT: <<This is a super exciting idea - and researchers and developers are already working on exactly such concepts, even if it hasn't really hit the mainstream media yet. Combining large language models (LLMs) with 3D printing tech opens up a bunch of creative and practical uses. There are AI tools that generate "3D-like" assets from text. Although these models are often still rough or "playful", the trend is clearly moving toward increasingly high-quality 3D objects. These approaches are already being used in mechanical engineering, aviation, and medical technology - but often still as "generative design", not generally visible to the public. AI-powered assistants already exist in well-known 3D modeling programs. Your idea is not only new i...

Encounter Is there a human subspecies existing right under our noses? I first encountered the concept of this possible subspecies of human existing in the wider field of humanity in Michael Ferguson’s piece on a possible variety or branch of Homo known as H. macrocephalus, or “big–headed human.” [1] Pathography My brain capacity is 1813cc or just above the average 1750cc criterion that Mr. Ferguson equates with mean H. macrocephalus cranial capacity. My honestly assessed IQ equates roughly to 150 standard deviation 15, that being from official and not official sources (the average of some 40+ tests of all varieties), making me an average macrocephalic as Mr. Ferguson describes it. My expected IQ, according to his formula; IQ = 0.2 x CC – 181 is roughly 180. As this represents a ratio IQ, which actually follows a natural deviation of 24, not 16, that would make my deviation IQ (sd=15), roughly 150, that estimate statistically matching my actual IQ. My scores on autism tests like the AQ ...

Throughout my life as an adult, my primary focus has been the quest for solutions to problems shared by many people. So I haven't cared about money, but about ideas. I seem to be a rare species. With Dr. Uwe Rohr, I elucidated a mechanism to fight stress and boost immunity. Afterwards, I invented "symbiont conversion", a method to solve the problem of antimicrobial resistance. While you can easily implement an idea if it is for profit, nobody seems to care about ideas that would help the entire mankind. Who should I contact about my idea with "symbiont conversion"? All I could do was write my idea down and get it published. Now it has been published for a year, but nobody seems to care about it. It is quite frustrating. Claus D. Volko

I've decided to slightly change the concept and design of this blog. Now I've branded it "A Blog on Science and Technology in the 21st Century" and renamed the former list of members of Prudentia High IQ Society to "Genius Directory". This does not mean that Prudentia is no longer a high IQ society. But my intention is that I want to open the blog for a broader audience. Basically nothing has really changed, everything just looks a bit different. If you want to be listed in the "Genius Directory", which is equivalent to joining the high IQ society, you can still send me an email. Claus D. Volko

There is another video on YouTube entitled: “Free will is scientifically impossible.” My objection to this is: if there were no free will, if we were doomed to be mere spectators of events that unfold deterministically, why do we have consciousness at all? Consciousness must have evolved (or access to consciousness, if, like me, you consider the psyche to be something immaterial). What survival advantage would living beings with consciousness have if they were unable to make decisions?  Claus D. Volko 

Yuval Noah Harari posed this question in his lecture at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJB7JNWo58w In my opinion, human society is a phenomenon that has developed over thousands of years because humans were not alone and were therefore forced to find an order that enabled them to live together in a regulated manner. It has proven successful for every person to earn their own living and to serve other people as employees. If many people are no longer needed in the work process because artificial intelligence and robots can do what they do at least as well and are also cheaper, humanity will have to find another basis for peaceful coexistence. These are enormous challenges. We really need to think about this. The final word is far from being spoken. There will be various models that will offer themselves as solutions. Perhaps different approaches will prevail in different countries. In any case, we are living in exciting times. Claus D. Volko 

The following text, generated by ChatGPT, is a structured synthesis of the relationship between severe mental disorders (SMD), hormones, and the immune system , integrating Dr. Uwe Rohr’s work with subsequent and newer research in psychoneuroimmunology and psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology.  1. Core idea in Dr. Uwe Rohr’s research Dr. Uwe Rohr approached severe mental disorders (e.g. major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD) not primarily as isolated “brain diseases”, but as systemic disorders of stress regulation , involving endocrine and immune dysregulation . 1.1 Stress as the central trigger Building on Selye’s stress concept, Rohr emphasized that chronic or extreme stress is the common denominator in SMD. Stress activates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis , leading to altered ACTH and cortisol signaling . 1.2 Steroidal hormone cascade model Rohr proposed that stress does not only elevate cortisol but distorts the entire steroid hormone cascade...

Integrating Cognitive Architecture with Personality Patterns Abstract Most theories of intelligence and personality describe either how humans think or how they differ—but rarely both in a unified framework. This article proposes an integration of a functional cognitive model (Input – Processing – Output) with Jungian and post-Jungian personality theories (including Myers–Briggs and Volko Personality Patterns) into a coherent theory of human thinking and experiencing. The key insight is that cognition and personality operate on different explanatory levels—and only their integration yields a complete picture. 1. The Fragmentation Problem in Theories of Mind Modern psychology suffers from a structural split: Cognitive theories explain mechanisms (memory, reasoning, processing speed) Personality theories explain preferences (styles, attitudes, dispositions) Psychometrics measures fragments of both, often without theoretical unity As a result, we know: how fast ...

Abstract Traditional intelligence testing focuses almost exclusively on internal cognitive processing. Yet in real intellectual life—science, philosophy, leadership, and increasingly artificial intelligence—what ultimately matters is not merely having understanding, but expressing it. This article argues that intelligence assessment systematically neglects output quality and proposes a new complementary construct: the Externalization Quotient (EOQ) . 1. The Hidden Assumption Behind IQ Tests Modern intelligence tests are built on an implicit assumption: Intelligence is something that happens inside the mind. Input (perception, memory) and processing (reasoning, abstraction) are carefully operationalized and measured. Output—language, explanation, communication—is treated as a contaminant variable rather than an object of study. This design choice made sense historically. Psychometrics aimed to be: language-minimal culture-fair objectively scorable Expression, by...

Pathophysiology as the Foundation of Medical Knowledge: A Rehabilitation of Theoretical Reasoning in Medicine Claus D. Volko (Independent Scholar, Vienna, Austria) Abstract Pathophysiology, understood as the study of the mechanisms underlying disease, constitutes the true foundation of medical knowledge, yet it is often sidelined in contemporary medical systems in favor of diagnostic routines and evidence-based classification schemes. This essay argues that pathophysiology is more than a subdivision of theoretical medicine: it is the epistemological core of medical reasoning. Pathophysiology is a paradigm of medical thought. It enables an understanding of the dynamic processes that link health and disease, thereby fundamentally differing from diagnostic medicine, which primarily classifies and labels symptoms. Based on an analysis of current structures in teaching and clinical practice, the essay shows that medicine often operates nominalistically: it names disease entities instead of ...

I'm 42 years old. Most men my age have children of their own. I don't. For most men, the meaning of life is obvious: they work hard to earn money to support themselves and their children, and in the sparetime they take care of their children. People like me, childfree people, have to determine for themselves what they are striving for. We have more freedom, but potentially also more responsibility for society. If you are childfree yourself, you might be asking yourself whether you've made a mistake. I don't think so. Let me argue: Of course you might have valuable genes and think that it's a pity that you didn't pass them on. But: Humans have thousands of genes. The entire set of these thousands of genes is what makes up an individual. If you have a child, you pass on only half of your genes. Of course that doesn't mean that the child shares only half of his/her genes with you, after all your spouse certainly also shares some genes with you (at least the one...

The Austrian Constitutional Court has now declared a law illegal that forbade egg freezing, also called social freezing, unless for a given medical indication. That's a great step into modernity in this Catholic, conservative country. Egg freezing is a technique that allows to save female ova for future use. Women are most reproductive in their 20s. At age 40, the ova are often already no longer suited for reproduction. By extracting an ovum at age 20 and re-inserting it at later age, chances are increased that conception happens. Thus women can focus on their education and career, and once they have reached their professional goals, they can still become mothers in later life. Austria was one of the few countries in which egg freezing used to be banned except for some special conditions. Now the Austrian parliament has time until 2027 to come up with a new legislation. Meanwhile it will be possible to use egg freezing. Austria is also one of the countries in which germ-line therap...

The following article solely represents the author's opinion. I do not speak on behalf of Prudentia High IQ Society. When we are born into this world, we soon learn to obey. There are grown-ups who are supposed to be superior to us and we have to do what they want us to do. As grown-ups, we are ourselves usually members of some sort of hierarchy, be it at workplace or in society. We have limited rights to direct others, but we have to obey ourselves. This system of submission is additionally institutionalized in the form of the state. The state with its government departments and clerks exerts control over us. Either we comply, or we are punished. In the course of history, there has been a change regarding what parts of the populations have access to power. While in the past only members of particular families (aristocracy) were eligible for office, nowadays most of us live in republics or at least in constitutional monarchies where a larger part of the population can theoretically...