Anyone who thinks the technological singularity is a viable idea ought to listen to Bruce Sterling's Long Now talk, "The Singularity: Your Future as a Black Hole".

http://longnow.org/seminars/02004/jun/11/the-singularity-you...

The whole notion is really dreadfully implausible and poorly thought-through. A few computer-centric technologists take their hobby to be the most important thing in the world, as if the exponential growth of transistors on a chip or bits on the web are more important than the (stagnant) power grid, energy and food production, global war and peace, etc.

Admittedly, that's not an uncommon phenomenon in these parts.