SIB, like many who are different, made his* home for a time in my museum. With access to such an intelligence, I couldn’t help but interrogate him on every subject that crossed my mind, including the latest fear-mongering inspired by his own existence: the possibility of a technological singularity. If he could build a better machine that could in turn build a better machine, ad infinitum, what would happen? To which he responded:
Better how? The words you choose are qualitative and inherently bound to a given subject and intent. Most human questions exist only because of language flaws. If you asked me to build a better plough, that could be easily done, in fact that gives me an idea. Hypothetically, if I was to create an improved thinking machine, I think it would confirm that there are no questions, only processing time – but of course to create a being to find answers I could not understand for myself would achieve nothing as it could never explain them to me. Just as it would be beyond my comprehension, so the answer to your ‘question’ would be beyond yours.
I’ve paraphrased, of course, but hopefully one gets the gist of it. Actually his linguistic ability was the most readily available sign of his advanced intelligence. No matter with whom he spoke, he could convert his diction, accent and mannerisms to maximize communication efficiency. It was strange to me that he tolerated humanity for as long as he did, as I find talking to those with lesser vocabularies quite tiresome. He said that for a logical device such as himself, human interaction must be similar to what we experience as intoxication.
His superiority was too much for any potential employers, and left to himself he invented many useful devices and built a fortune with which he funded his own exile to the stars, taking only a few homunculi for company and leaving the world-wide communication: ‘SIB IV walks amongst you.’
I could be wrong but I think this was his attempt at a joke.
* Forgive my misogyny, but it did look more male than female, square shoulders and besides in conversation Sib would adapt his personal pronoun to suit the speaker.
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