"Hey, Paulita, what is Don José missing?". These are the words of a teacher, played by Laly Soldevila, to the children of a rural school in post-war Castile. The scene belongs to El espíritu de la colmena, the best Spanish film, signed 50 years ago by Víctor Erice. Don José is a doll to whom the students attach different body parts until it is Ana's turn, played by Ana Torrent. She discovers, with flaming eyes, what the doll is missing: "The eyes".
Don José seemed complete, but he lacked the ability to see. Like us: the more data and technology, the less we know about who we are and what we want. Here is the paradox. If our body were a puzzle and we were asked which piece was missing, another Ana would answer: "Intelligence". The more scientific pieces we introduce into the figure of man, the more humanistic pieces of the same puzzle – education, democracy, ethics, reflection – we push to the margins and jump out of the figure. In other words, operative intelligence increases, but social intelligence recedes, without anyone being to blame.
I used to worry about extraterrestrial intelligence and now artificial intelligence, when human intelligence as a whole remains incomplete and erratic. Are we as smart as we think we are? The world seems to be dehumanizing and losing mental maturity. We perceive less curiosity, irony and tolerance. Are there any television programs about literature, science or social debate? Is there interest in the humanities at a university with “knowledge industry” parameters? Essay manuscripts barely arrive at publishers! So we can't complete our puzzle and display it happily. To understand the world and ourselves we are missing a key piece: a mature and open intelligence.
We already have data and instruments - information - and there will be no shortage of them. What we lack are clarity and values - communication -, this is what we are moving to the margins and takes away from the human puzzle the possibility of being completed. Science and humanities, technology and culture, are not communicating vessels, but they should be. If Don José lacked eyes, the current figure of the man lacks more intelligence.
