This paper argues that intelligence can be approximated by the ability to produce accurate predictions. It is further argued that general intelligence can be approximated by context dependent predictive abilities combined with the ability to use working memory to abstract away contextual information. The flexibility associated with general intelligence can be understood as the ability to use selective attention to focus on specific aspects of sensory impressions to identify patterns, which can then be used to predict events in novel situations and environments. The argumentation synthesizes Godfrey-Smith’s environmental complexity theory, adding the notion of niche broadness as well as changes concerning the view of cognition and control, and Hohwy’s predictive mind theory, making explicit the significance of accuracy as a composite of trueness and precision where the nervous system acts as a distributed controller motivating actions that keep the body in homeostasis.

本文认为，可以通过产生准确预测的能力来近似智能。进一步认为，一般智力可以通过上下文相关的预测能力与使用工作记忆来提取上下文信息的能力相结合来近似。与一般智能有关的灵活性可以理解为使用选择性注意力专注于感官印象的特定方面以识别模式的能力，然后可以将其用于预测新颖情况和环境中的事件。该论证综合了戈弗雷-史密斯的环境复杂性理论，增加了利基范围的概念以及有关认知和控制观点的变化，以及霍威的预测性思维理论，