Hey lets talk about superintelligent AI again!
@Azure @Angle@witches.town in Urth of the New Sun, it's definitely treated as... a natural progression for a sentient species; not painless or easy, but--more like reproduction than evolution, kindly meant. I thought of it that way, anyway. ;)
I re-read the series about once a year, and it seems like every time I do I notice something else, make some other connection, that I had missed before. XD