> if there was a human that was 27 times smarter than anybody else (and could self-replicate at will), how long would it be until that individual took control o

> if there was a human that was 27 times smarter than anybody else (and could self-replicate at will), how long would it be until that individual took control over the world? Sometime in the mid-90's. The problem is, what do you do with it? Tiger by the tail, eh? - - - - He lived in Seattle. He was fourteen when I met him, and approximately the size of a brontosaurus, mostly neural tissue. He had cracked nanotechnology though manipulating his own cells, his "nanites" were single cells riding in tiny spaceships, like diatoms but with artificial shells. If you were alive before 1999 you had tens of thousands of them in your body. He grew his own brain into this vast hulking thing, with artificial life support systems, cyborg intestines and continuous aeration based on "book lungs". This was of course after he was already the most intelligent human to ever exist, eh? He used that huge pile of Lovecraftian brain cells to control the global network of minions (that's what he called his cellular remote drone critters.) The thing is, he was keenly aware of his limitations, and he refused to exercise any control over anyone else beyond what was required to hide from the rest of humanity. He was also a huge Tom Baker Dr. Who fan. SPOILER ALERT: You know that scene where the Doctor is deciding whether or not it's moral to destroy the Daleks? That fucking scene is the reason he didn't enslave humanity or anything wacky like that. He told me that it had affected him profoundly, and that's why he declined to "fix" humans against their will. Funny old world, ain't it? Anyway, he got sick of the weirdness and uncertainty, built himself some sort of fucking UFO, shed his exo-brain and nanites, and split. AFAIK he's still living in some weird contraption of his own design out there in the Kuiper belt.