text: **Superintelligence and the singularity**
  
  A superintelligence is a hypothetical agent that would possess intelligence far surpassing that of the 
  brightest and most gifted human mind.[379] If research into artificial general intelligence produced 
  sufficiently intelligent software, it might be able to reprogram and improve itself. The improved software 
  would be even better at improving itself, leading to what I. J. Good called an "intelligence explosion" and 
  Vernor Vinge called a "singularity".[395] 
  
  However, technologies cannot improve exponentially indefinitely, and typically follow an S-shaped 
  curve, slowing when they reach the physical limits of what the technology can do.[396] 