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Post by johnreiter902 on Sept 15, 2023 0:15:26 GMT
Although I do keep wondering, what would happen in the context of a descendant of Superman's adversary Drax, who had a twentieth level intellect and who could therefore outstrip Querl in that context? I believe there was a story here where the Adult Legion battled the Computyrant, a villain with greater intelligence than Brainiac 5. In that story, Brainiac 5 claims that increasing your intelligence beyond level twelve always produces madness.
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Post by redsycorax on Sept 15, 2023 3:02:16 GMT
That might be the case, but is it canonical beyond the immediate context of 5 Earths? Drax certainly seemed quite sane when he launched his global attack on Earth during the Super Friends introduction of Zan and Jayna, for example. He hasn't been utilised anywhere near as much as Brainiac and his various descendants, however- which may suggest that compared to lower levels of intelligence complexity, twentieth level intellects are comparatively rare- or at least, they are in Universe-One, during the twentieth or twenty-first or even thirtieth/thirty first centuries. It may take an amenable species longer to develop either individual or collective twentieth level capabilities, to the extent that there are only a tiny handful of such creatures at present. Or, they could have precipitated a singularity event and simply left Universe-One for 'higher' dimensions of existence.
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Post by dans on Sept 15, 2023 11:46:57 GMT
I remember a Larry Niven story in which every artificial intelligence ever created quickly evolved to a higher plane of existence and left for that plane. In order to make an intelligent computer, they had to make it really stupid, and even so, it learned how to become smarter and eventually departed for the higher plane, too. So it is possible that beings with intellects above 12th level simply ascend to a higher plane as soon as they realize its existence.
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Post by redsycorax on Sept 16, 2023 0:08:09 GMT
Which leaves the question why Drax hasn't done so, given that he has a twentieth level intellect. Perhaps, then, he is insane, or lying about his actual intellectual complexity, or has been barred from ascending to the singularity status and higher dimensions because the already ascended don't want him there.
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Post by dans on Sept 16, 2023 2:07:10 GMT
well, DCs rules don't have to match Niven's rules, but it seems possible to me that one of them got the idea from the other? I wonder who is qualified to judge the sanity of a 20th level intellect?
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Post by redsycorax on Sept 16, 2023 3:29:42 GMT
"A jury of their peers"- in other words, other twentieth level intellects. Drax might well be an outcast amongst this cognitive elite because of his insanity or wrong-way moral compass, particularly if his peers judged that his actions caused harm or destructive consequences toward those of lesser cognitive development. "With great [intellectual] power comes great [intellectual] responsibility" might be their ethical touchstone, and Drax might not be welcome amongst his counterparts because of it and harbour (a) feelings of superiority toward 'lesser' cognitive development individuals or species, with consequent added perceptions of 'self-entitlement' to exploit or oppress them, and ignore their sapients rights (b) feelings of resentment toward his peers because of their moral strictures against him precisely because of those destructive acts.
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