The other assumption was based on the determinism of the machine. As far as I understand, the brain is not a deterministic computer. We don’t really understand how our brains work at all, but they definitely don’t work in any way shape or form to how we understand a computer to work, this leaving even more possibility for interpretation to an opposite conclusion.
Lastly, what about all the evidence of people who actually did accomplish exponentially more work than others? We have the benefit of the hindsight to check that real quick and, yup, I’d say 100% there are people who have done it. Elon, Jobs, Gates, etc...
However, I’d agree with the author if they argued that we can’t predict who will be exponentially smarter. To do that, we would have to simulate the future or have an algorithm that can tell us, which obviously presents some contradictions.
I think we all just sort have to wait and see.