Low-Information Intelligence
Low-Information Intelligence and Option Invention (after Fletcher)
What “means” in low-information intelligence are
Low-information intelligence does not reject data. It deliberately limits informational load so the mind can focus on salience, causation, and imagination. Its means are cognitive instruments that compress reality rather than measure it exhaustively.
Salience over completeness. The mind selects what matters instead of tracking everything. Salience is determined by emotional charge, agency, causal leverage, and change over time. This allows detection of inflection points, which never appear fully measured or labeled.
Narrative causality. Instead of equations, the mind models the world through agents, motives, obstacles, and turning points. Narrative is how the brain represents causation across time when formal models are unavailable or misleading. A plan is therefore a provisional story about how action could change the future.
Exception sensitivity. Primal intelligence privileges anomalies, surprises, and violations of expectation. Change reveals itself as exception, not trend. High-information systems average exceptions away; low-information intelligence treats them as signals.
Compression and abstraction. Stories radically compress information. They strip away irrelevant detail while preserving causal structure. This compression enables mental simulation, rapid revision, and imaginative exploration. Without compression, imagination stalls.
How viable options are invented
Fletcher’s core claim is that rational intelligence selects among options, while primal intelligence creates options. Option invention is achieved through narrative thinking.
Entering a narrative role. Instead of asking what to do, the thinker asks what a particular kind of agent would do in the situation. This externalizes cognition, bypasses habit, and opens counterfactual space.
Asking generative questions. Rational decision-making asks which option is best. Primal intelligence asks what someone like this could do next. This expands possibility space rather than narrowing it.
Simulating causal chains. Imagination generates actions and traces their consequences forward. This is mental simulation, not fantasy. Non-viable stories collapse quickly; viable ones persist under stress.
Identifying a new option. The outcome is not a choice among known paths but the discovery of a path that did not previously exist. The option emerges from the narrative itself.
Why low information is required
Option invention fails under informational overload. Imagination requires cognitive slack, novelty hides beyond existing metrics, and future causation cannot be inferred directly from past data. Low-information conditions preserve adaptability and creative planning.
Why stories train planning
Stories repeatedly expose the brain to agents acting under uncertainty. They reward adaptation, punish rigidity, and encode strategy as lived experience. Reading and generating stories trains the brain to invent plans without explicit instruction.
Summary
Low-information intelligence is the disciplined use of sparse, high-salience inputs to preserve imagination and causal reasoning under uncertainty. According to Fletcher, viable options are invented by entering narrative perspectives, asking generative questions, simulating causal stories, retaining those that survive stress, and revising them through action.