It's clearly possible for a something to acquire higher intelligence than its ancestors: we evolved to be smarter than our ape-like ancestors, and Einstein was smarter than his parents.

My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG fourteen times gives you job security.

I am damned if I'm going to die before I have unraveled more of the universe

One can't prove that God doesn't exist. But science makes God unnecessary. The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.

Only a very few would allow creatures like us to exist. Thus our presence selects out from this vast array only those universes that are compatible with our existence. Although we are puny and insignificant on the scale of the cosmos, this makes us in a sense the lords of creation.