The following Thursday, Mr Blottisham arrived carrying no graphs.
This was encouraging.
Unfortunately, he also appeared confident.
This largely cancelled the advantage.
Professor Quillibrace was examining examination papers.
Miss Stray was reading by the window.
Blottisham entered briskly.
"I have been thinking."
Quillibrace looked concerned.
"About what?"
"The future."
"I feared as much."
Blottisham sat down.
"I believe I have solved the matter."
"Excellent."
"The machine will eventually surpass humanity."
Quillibrace nodded.
"Possibly."
Blottisham frowned.
"Not possibly."
"No?"
"Inevitably."
"I see."
The professor laid aside a paper.
"What precisely will it surpass?"
Blottisham sighed.
"Humanity."
"Yes."
"You heard me."
"I did."
"Then why are you asking?"
Quillibrace considered this.
"Because I do not know what the sentence means."
The room became quiet.
Blottisham looked genuinely surprised.
"It means exactly what it says."
"That has not always proved sufficient."
Miss Stray lowered her book.
"What do you mean by humanity?"
Blottisham looked puzzled.
"People."
"Which people?"
"All people."
"Together?"
"Yes."
"As a group?"
"Yes."
"As a civilisation?"
Blottisham hesitated.
"I suppose so."
Miss Stray nodded thoughtfully.
"That seems rather large."
"It is."
"And the machine will surpass all of it?"
"Naturally."
Quillibrace leaned back.
"At what?"
Blottisham groaned.
"There is always an 'at what'."
"There generally is."
The professor folded his hands.
"Will it surpass humanity at chess?"
"Certainly."
"Reasoning?"
"Certainly."
"Scientific analysis?"
"Certainly."
"Writing computer code?"
"Certainly."
"Growing tomatoes?"
Blottisham paused.
"I imagine so."
"Raising children?"
The pause lengthened.
"Possibly."
"Forming friendships?"
"Perhaps."
"Maintaining constitutional government?"
Blottisham looked uneasy.
"That seems rather different."
"Indeed."
Miss Stray spoke.
"I wonder whether 'humanity' is being treated as though it were a single activity."
The room fell silent.
Blottisham considered this.
"It is a single thing."
"Is it?"
She gestured toward the college grounds outside.
"There are scientists."
"Yes."
"Gardeners."
"Yes."
"Parents."
"Yes."
"Judges."
"Yes."
"Poets."
"Regrettably."
"Musicians."
"Certainly."
"Politicians."
Quillibrace winced.
"Proceed."
Miss Stray smiled.
"What exactly would it mean to surpass all of them simultaneously?"
Blottisham looked thoughtful.
Then relieved.
"It would mean being more intelligent."
Quillibrace closed his eyes briefly.
"Ah."
The room waited.
At length he opened them again.
"There it is."
"What?"
"The word doing all the work."
Blottisham looked annoyed.
"Intelligence is important."
"I agree."
"It is central."
"Perhaps."
"It explains everything."
"There I hesitate."
The professor stood and walked toward the window.
"Suppose a machine becomes better than every mathematician."
"Excellent."
"Better than every scientist."
"Excellent."
"Better than every engineer."
"Excellent."
He turned.
"Has it therefore surpassed humanity?"
"Obviously."
"Why?"
"Because those are the most intelligent activities."
The silence that followed was unusually delicate.
Miss Stray eventually spoke.
"According to whom?"
Blottisham opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Then opened it again.
Nothing emerged.
Quillibrace resumed his seat.
"What interests me," he said, "is that discussions of superintelligence often begin with measurable skills."
"Naturally."
"And end with civilisational conclusions."
"Naturally."
"That word again."
Blottisham frowned.
"What word?"
"'Naturally.'"
The professor picked up a pencil.
"We begin with a machine performing certain tasks."
"Yes."
"We then aggregate those tasks."
"Yes."
"We call the aggregate intelligence."
"Yes."
"We then elevate intelligence above every other human capacity."
"Yes."
"We then conclude that superiority in intelligence implies superiority in humanity."
"Yes."
The professor nodded.
"A remarkably efficient sequence."
Blottisham looked pleased.
"I thought so."
Miss Stray laughed.
The professor smiled faintly.
"That was not admiration."
The room settled into silence.
After several moments, Miss Stray spoke again.
"I wonder whether people are attracted to the phrase 'surpassing humanity' because humanity itself is difficult to specify."
"What do you mean?" asked Blottisham.
"If I claim superiority in one domain, someone can examine the claim."
"Yes."
"If I claim superiority in ten domains, people can still inspect them."
"Yes."
"But if I claim superiority over humanity itself..."
She paused.
"...the comparison becomes symbolic."
The room grew still.
Blottisham stared at her.
Quillibrace nodded approvingly.
"An excellent observation."
"What does it mean?" asked Blottisham.
"It means," said the professor, "that the phrase begins to function less as a measurement..."
He glanced at Miss Stray.
"...and more as a myth."
The silence lingered.
Outside, students crossed the quadrangle.
Inside, Blottisham looked troubled.
At length he said:
"Are you suggesting the machine will not become more intelligent?"
"No."
"Then what are you suggesting?"
Quillibrace returned to his examination papers.
"Only that becoming more intelligent and surpassing humanity may not be the same proposition."
Blottisham stared into the fire.
The distinction appeared to be settling onto him very slowly.
Like snow.
Or committee paperwork.
Neither process was known for its speed.
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