An Internet for the intellectus

The Middle Ages made a distinction between two forms of human knowledge: ratio (intellect) and the intellectus. Ratio refers to the power of logical, discursive thought—searching, examining, abstracting, defining, and drawing conclusions—representing the productive, progress-seeking side of human intelligence. Intellectus, on the other hand, can be seen as the contemplative vision, a simple, intuitive understanding where truth reveals itself like a landscape to the eye, the more creative and spiritual counterpart.

Philosophers of antiquity saw the active effort of discursive thought as the properly human element in our knowledge (ratio), and regarded the intellectus to be ‘beyond the sphere allotted to man’. Thomas Aquinas called the vita contemplativa ‘not really human but superhuman, although it is the noblest mode of human life’.

As we enter the new world and make room for artificial intelligence, the value of the human brain is increasingly defined on how creative it can be — how much it can tap into the intellectus. We can interpret this as a window of opportunity to redefine the essence of being human, to evolve into higher frequency beings. Or in Aquinas’ terms: transcend from human to superhuman.

We just need some tools to help us do so.