Intelligence on Earth
aloe.incIntelligence is the mitigation of uncertainty. If it does not mitigate uncertainty it is not intelligence.
All this stuff about “prediction” when intelligence obviously includes identification.
All this stuff about memory when intelligence negotiates square pegs through square holes.
Ascribing too much to intelligence obfuscates the most simple underlying mechanism, to mitigate uncertainty.
Uncertainty is the motivating force in the Universe. Some call it entropy.
Intelligence is anything which mitigates uncertainty, even that which reveals more uncertainties.
Resolving uncertainty into a determination in the moment of now is as intelligent as intelligence gets.
What you’re saying ascribes more to the definition of intelligence than the author’s. “Memory that modifies behavior” doesn’t have any stated purpose whereas you’re suggesting that its purpose must be to reduce uncertainty. The latter sounds closer to a definition of knowledge - i.e. experience compressed into something with predictive power.