"I have a feeling there's a lot more in that answer than meets the eye. Can you estimate to what extent we would surpass the Challon?"
"If my Challon memory serves me, they had no knowledge of any mind-structure of a capacity remotely approaching that of Man. It is a maze, incredibly complex, with far-reaching resources I can only guess at. The Challon part of my mind has the profoundest admiration for a superb mechanism it can only dimly comprehend, but beneath the Challon"—the voice dropped almost to a whisper—"beneath the Challon is the dog, and the dog sees his god." The power of that factor he had not considered.
Phil laughed uneasily, both shocked and repelled.
"I hope you're joking. We sound like the sweet-smelling Flower of Creation! When a dog reaches the level you ... um ... Homer has, it becomes Man's equal, not his pet."
"Until Man's advance thrusts the dog back to an even lower relative position, as it inevitably must when ... if ... Man comes into his own. I told you I dared not leave myself isolated and speechless by clearing the simple short-circuit immobilizing Timmy. Now you see why I dared not go even farther and release—untrained and with no hope of adequate training—the true Homo superior, the transcendent man."
"That's like turning a tiger loose in a kindergarten! Give a man a really high-powered intellect and for all his shortcomings—"
"The intellect is nothing. The data, the circumstances, the influences, the environment that shape the intellect, these are what count. Your theorists say that although Man may some day create wonderful mechanical brains with a creative capacity almost equal to Man's own, you can never create a brain that is your superior. That is true, and the reasoning is obvious. In a more limited sense, your body repairs itself daily but it cannot improve on itself, it cannot spontaneously develop functions it never had—it cannot even repair severe damage without outside help. The same applies to the mind. A sick mind cannot achieve the objectivity needed to repair itself, if the damage is too great. No, the intellect is nothing until it learns. What would Timmy have learned, and from whom? Take a minute to think of all the connotations." Phil thought of some of them, uneasily. "Assume that from the start his status as Homo superior was recognized ... is that a fair assumption?"
"It ... ah ... would sooner or later become apparent."
"After how much damage had been done that could not be undone, since Homo sapiens cannot ever be competent to guide and train Homo superior?"