Just read this article: 'Does University Challenge really test intelligence?'
The BBC is notorious for moderating comments on their website, so mine will probably not get published - but here it is for my blog's benefit. I challenge you to disagree.
I say: "Questions on UC (like Mastermind) are distinctly British and mainly test memory. In today's world, when it has become much easier to access information, people that are truly intelligent put more effort into being able to analyse diverse and large quantities of information than in memorising its detail. University Challenge participants might be brainy, but for this reason, are probably quite un-intelligent."
So in effect, Gail Trimble might be the brainiest woman in Britain, but her success on 'University Challenge' is perhaps evidence that she does not use her capability intelligently enough.
Analysing this in technological terms, it would be stupid to make the CPU in a computer do the graphics processing when a separate graphics chip is already present on the board.
Rather than admiring such an obvious fault, we should be condemning those that implement it this way. University Challenge is an obsolete concept from an age when information was still only found in print and fifficult to aggregate. We need a 'University challenge 2.0' now.
Brain power is expensive. Machines are cheap. Lets leave the memorization to the machines please and leave us to do higher things - like analysis, or invention. Anybody?
