First let us define
Intelligence:
Intelligence is measured by the capacity to remember and predict patterns in the world, including language, mathematics, physical properties of objects, and social situations. Your brain receives patterns from the outside world, stores them as memories, and makes predictions by combining what it has seen before and what is happening now... The human brain is more intelligent than that of other animals because it can make predictions about more abstract kinds of patterns and longer temporal pattern sequences.
- Jeff Hawkins.
In addition to this my friend James helped to point out that there is an important distinction between subjective pattern prediction and objective (i.e, everything that does not directly involve the self). And it is the objective pattern prediction(OPP) that plays the critical role in what makes someone intelligent.
Now given this definition of Intelligence we can come up with a definition of
Boredom: When the brain makes a prediction and it fits rather accurately the Here & NOW pattern - it feels satisfaction from learning something new. Given enough such successful predictions the brain is now confident that it has indeed learned the pattern to a satisfactory level and now it is very logical for the emotion of boredom to set in. Now every time you have to do that task there is a sense of boredom from lack of anything new. Which plays an important role in our motivation for novel learning. If not for boredom we would seldom learn anything new.
Now imagine you are very intelligent (i.e, you make predictions about the world to a very advanced level and you do it fast.) Would it not follow that not only your are more intelligent - but you are statistically likely to get bored more often unless you specifically choose you life to be a life of an intellectual endeavors. Why? Well because many tasks in life will quickly become easily predictable for you and thus - boring.
There is of course another important factor in this equation, namely - Knowledge Database. It is not enough to make predictions - you must also have a wide range of patterns in your database to make predictions from. So it follows that people who have more time/spend more time learning will naturally make more predictions then people who do not learn( e.g, read, write, go to lectures.) And thus get bored more frequently(in some settings).
So if a child is born with a slightly faster mind(makes predictions faster) and higher intelligence(ability to associate and predict in a broad sense) and has a lot of time on his hands to learn (and of course the desire to do so). Then it is not hard to imagine that the child will outgrow the average child in intellect quite fast and what is more dramatic then that - the gap between his level of intellect and the average will widen rapidly through time. Just like a snail who moves 1cm/h faster then another snail will in 1 000 000 hours have a kilometer advantage.
At this point i want to define loneliness using the definitions of intellect i had laid out in the beginning.
Loneliness: A feeling that there are no people around you (or not enough) whom share your predictions about the world to the level that you had conceived (i.e, perspective on the world). This perspective of course involves the speed/pattern database and the degree of association you are capable of.
I think the reader must agree that it is not enough to be surrounded by people- we have to be surrounded by people with approximate intellect. In a similar way that surrounded by monkeys would not make one feel any less lonely. Otherwise we would find them boring.
Boring People: People whose behavior/thought patterns is easily predictable or is already contained within the pattern database(a long time ago).
Let us venture into a few thought experiments/introspection. What happens in a child's mind when he no longer enjoys playing with toys? I distinctly remember a few moments long ago when i would pick up Legos or Action Man and no longer feel the joy from playing - i was bored. What happened? Why did i grow bored of them? I think this question is a very important question in understanding this topic. One explanation would be - it became too predictable and as my mind matured i needed to learn new things. Another would be a realization that it was all just a game but there is a whole reality in front of me to explore. Perhaps Legos became engineering and problem solving somewhere along the way - a more complicated version of the game. Another would be a realization that my toys had little consequences on my ability to control the world around me. Perhaps somewhere deep inside i started thinking more objectively and realizing that there are problems in the real world that my toys are not addressing at all. Perhaps it was a combination of the lot. Whatever the cause may be- i sense that toys is not the only things we grow bored of as we age. Toys is just one little stage - and there are many to go.
Eventually when the child's mind reaches enough objectivity - a sense of wasting time is developed.
Wasting Time: Recognizing that current behavior does not synchronize the the pattern of behavior that we predict would optimally help us achieve our aspirations. It is very likely that people with higher intellect also feel a heightened awareness of wasting time, since they are able to recognize more patterns that are detrimental to their goals.
As perspective matures and becomes more objective, more and more types of behavior makes little sense. And it becomes more and more clear what one SHOULD do. For instance trying to get really good at a sport starts to make less and less sense. So ok, I am good at putting basketballs in the basket. Now what? What benefit does it bring me or humanity? Perhaps it gives me exercise but that is about it. When an intellect reaches a high level of objectivity - it becomes very important that his actions are not just pleasurable but bring some kind of benefits to those around him. It becomes very obvious that there are better ways to spend time then playing basketball. Especially seeing all the suffering around us - and most importantly the realization that much of it can be fixed with a lot of effort from a lot of people.
I would like to conclude with a though experiment: Imagine that an evil scientist plays a horrible joke on you and puts your brain inside a monkey's body. You wake up in a cage of monkeys. How would you feel? Lonely? Eager to find the company of people like you? Puzzled by the sheer stupidity and irrationality of the monkeys around you?
This is how many great intellects of our time feel, especially at an age when they have not yet found those like them.
