[Reach]

You bring up an interesting point and dilemma. While strong general purpose AI might elude us for the entirety of the 21st century, we already have good human models for intelligence and genetics research is exploding.

If there is one thing I can see happening in the not so distant future, it would be human gene modification, and while the ethics debates will surely never end on that subject...once it's possible there are probably going to be people doing it. Making something illegal has never in history prevented it from happening...so someone, somewhere will start doing it.

...and if you created a human superintelligence, couldn't it have all of the benefits of an SAI in that it could solve problems that have otherwise eluded mankind, without any of the dangers or resource concerns of an SAI?