We are very impressed with ourselves. I mean, we are seriously blown away by our own brilliance. I don’t know if you’re aware of it yet, but we’d love to tell you in exhaustive detail just how intelligent we are. We’re very smart.

We search the universe for signs of intelligent life. We send examples of our gob-stopping sagacity flying out into the unknown on space probes. If aliens were smart, they’d understand just how clever we are.

Oddly enough, we don’t often think about what human intelligence really is. At its most basic level, what we think of as intelligence is essentially interpretive pattern matching. “One of these things is not like the other.” We take in massive amounts of data via our senses. Almost without conscious thought, we filter out the data we determine to be irrelevant outliers and try to fit the rest into recognizable patterns. We also take the existing data and patterns and extrapolate future patterns. From their time spent observing the effects of gravity on a spherical object, a child can predict the path of a fly ball deep in right field and stretch out a glove to catch it. In addition, some children will use their past observations to conclude that no matter what effort they apply, they will drop the ball and earn the eternal derision of their peers, which is a shame since they never wanted to play the stupid game in the first place.

When the available data does not fit, we sometimes fill in the blanks with false data. This can be seen in people who swear that this time, everything will be different, even though nothing has changed. We will occasionally disregard one set of patterns with extensive supporting data in lieu of others with minimal data because we prefer one pattern over another. We see this in people who choose to believe that they can be the next American Idol in spite of the fact that they sound like a wagon load of deranged baboons being dumped inside a large bouncy castle filled with cranky sea lions (…and I’m not talking about the talented deranged baboons…)

When we find ourselves discussing opposing points of view and it becomes clear that the data supports the other person’s patterns instead of our own, the tendency is switch to the “Yeah, well, you’re stupid” tactic. If we can’t win an argument based on logic and facts, we resort to name calling. Intelligence often has nothing to do with it.

The good news is that we can change our own thinking. We can choose our patterns. We can evaluate the extraneous data, discover a new pattern that seems to offer a better fit, and choose to explore it. I think it’s this ability to re-interpret patterns that is the best indication of human intelligence. I bet the aliens haven’t thought of that one.

Oh, yeah. We’re awesome. Somebody tell the aliens.