[evanwise]

An analogous argument would hold in the case of "units of capability". Why do you think the problem of producing capable minds is any easier than the problem of producing intelligent minds? I'm not sure what the point of your chimp analogy is, unless you think I think that brain size is the unit of intelligence. Anyway, I'm also skeptical of the idea that there are such things as general "units of intelligence", but the entire notion of a superintelligence is predicated on the idea that intelligence is a general quality and can be meaningfully quantified. It's not clear to me how we'd even define superintelligence without reference to some quantitative measure of intelligence, although if you'd like to try, I'd be interested.