Rather, I think what people call "intelligence" is actually a matter of their philosophical theories and rationality, especially either general purpose ideas (which allow one to be good at many things) or ideas in specific fields people are impressed by (e.g. math).
Have you looked at the evidence that this is false? Or is your belief not falsifiable? :)
It is primarily a philosophical belief. It can be falsified by criticism. It could in theory be falsified using scientific tests about how brains work, but technology isn't there yet. It could also in theory be falsified if, say, people were dramatically different than they are. But I'm not relying on any special evidence in that regard, just basic facts of the world around us we're all aware of. (For example, people commonly hold conversations with each other and partially understand each other. And then learn new languages. And children learn a first lan...
http://vimeo.com/22099396
What do people think of this, from a Bayesian perspective?
It is a talk given to the Oxford Transhumanists. Their previous speaker was Eliezer Yudkowsky. Audio version and past talks here: http://groupspaces.com/oxfordtranshumanists/pages/past-talks