"Many times," he writes, "I have felt myself on the brink of a pessimistic conclusion as to the function of thinking, of intelligence, in society", even to the point of wondering whether "the role of critical intelligence", which he had exercised so often and at such costs to himself, might not be "dangerous, and very nearly useless".
Perhaps in ascending order of intelligence?
Avoid false indicators of intelligence.
As the US and Russia reached the brink of nuclear war in 1962, John F Kennedy received top-secret intelligence from the CIA that a new warhead launcher was spotted in Cuba.
The attack on India's parliament in 2001 by Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist group with close links to Pakistan's intelligence service, brought the two countries to the brink of war.
Amrullah Saleh, then the head of the national intelligence service, told Karzai that the bank was on the brink of collapse.
Of all the amazing technologies on the brink of creation, one has implications far beyond any others: the establishment of superhuman artificial intelligence, or AI.
Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, has declared a state of emergency, hours after US intelligence officials warned that the South American country could be on the brink of disintegration.
As we explore in this week's Dining section, Peter Kaminsky, a two-decade veteran of the eating beat and the author of a new book called "Culinary Intelligence: The Art of Eating Healthy (And Really Well)," found himself on the brink of a health crisis late in 2007, when a doctor told him that his body had begun flirting with obesity and diabetes.
The training scenarios, created from intelligence reports fresh from the front, are capable of bringing stressed soldiers to the brink of tears, commanders say.
