Capitalism should never cease to exist. It's based on the voluntary exchange of goods and services. The only economic system compatible with freedom & liberty is the free enterprise system (capitalism). Socialism is the COERCED exchange of goods and services and redistribution of wealth, controlled by a heavy handed central authority (government).

We don't know if conscious experience is beyond the ability of AIs, narrow or general. I have no doubt they will become very good at convincing us they are conscious. We will never really know since consciousness is a 1st person experience.

The experience of love cannot be "programmed," nor can any other emotion or feeling (e.g., the taste of chocolate or the smell of a rose).

As Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose has stated, "consciousness is not a computation." Experiences occur within consciousness.

Nobel laureate Roger Penrose stated, "consciousness is not a computation." I agree with him 100%. A also agree with the father of quantum physics, Max Planck: "I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” I don't assume that our AI creations will be conscious. They'll get extremely good at CONVINCING people they're truly conscious, however. We'll never REALLY know since consciousness is a 1st person experience. There's no known scientific experiment, even in principle, that can falsify or directly detect consciousness in an individual. The only conscious entity that you can be SURE is conscious is yourself.

LED lighting

Smartphones

4K TV

Narrow AIs with pattern recognition ability superior to human, e.g., facial recognition

You OBVIOUSLY misunderstand the point I'm disputing. MurderByEgoDeath wrote: "Everyone CAN get a PhD from MIT and anything else. We all have that potential ability." Anyone with half a brain knows that is NOT TRUE. We DO NOT all have that potential ability. Not even close. I AM an authority on this subject because I've seen 1st hand people that were simply not smart enough to do well in undergraduate coursework at a top engineering and science university. You made several other incorrect arguments, but I'm not going to waste further time disputing them.

You're missing the forest for the trees. Again, you don't know what you're talking about. Someone with a below average IQ CANNOT do well in advanced science and math classes at MIT. It doesn't matter how much they desire to do well, study, or memorize.

We are not even close to reaching a tech plateau, and never will unless we somehow destroy ourselves. Tech advancements are often unpredictable and come out of left field, or they are hiding in plain sight until mass adoption makes them hard not to see. Overall, technological advancement is relentless and accelerating. As the sci-fi author William Gibson has stated, "The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed."

A wonderful project for a top sci-fi author would be to take "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov, and turn it into a novel or series of novels.

The naivete is astounding. The detachment from reality is astounding. The reality is that individuals have vastly different levels of ability and intelligence in different fields. You said "We are universal intelligences, and given enough time, anyone can understand anything." ***That's absolute nonsense*** You believe, given enough time, someone with an IQ of 85 (about 1 standard deviation below the mean) can understand Advanced Calculus or Advance Physical Chemistry. That's absurd.

If you could travel back to a previous state of the universe, you would change the state, which is a logical contradiction. Therefore, you cannot travel back to a previous state of the universe. The idea of branching-off into different timelines does not seem to create any paradoxes or logical contradictions, however.

Not even close to "Godliness" in the Judeo-Christian way of thinking. Their God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and eternal.

Living a million years, a million times stronger, and a million times smarter than today's humans is still light years from the Judeo-Christian God concept (omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and eternal).

I believe the mythical utopia is forever unobtainable for legacy humans even after the technological singularity, due to our very make-up. However, for those of us who choose to move into the infinite realm beyond human (which the singularity will make possible), all bets are off.

Read "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov.
It's the best science fiction short story ever written.

See "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov.

It's the best science fiction short story ever written.

So-called "experts" are often wrong. In fact, there are NO experts on the technological singularity. If we knew what was actually coming, it wouldn't be a singularity event. A singularity, by definition, is unknowable by anything outside of it. However, you miss my point. Every revolution in human affairs brings advantages for humans as well as disadvantages and many new problems. Therefore, the mythical utopia WILL NOT occur. I highly doubt that ONLY one of two extremes will occur as a result of a technological singularity. That's far too simplistic.

I don't think the result will be a binary either/or. The agricultural and industrial revolutions each brought great advantages to humans as well as many new problems. The same will be true for AGI and ASI. I am certain, however, that "utopia" will remain a pipe dream, even after a technological singularity.

You don't know what the hell you're talking about. I went to engineering school at University of Michigan. Classes such as advanced calculus and physical chemistry are HARD, and require far more than just the willingness and motivation to learn, or a good memory. The vast majority of people ***DO NOT*** have the intelligence to do well at those classes, and go on to even more difficult graduate school classes at a place like MIT.

Actually, no.

The vast majority of people are NOT capable of getting a PhD in the hard sciences, mathematics, or engineering from MIT.

Sorry to burst your bubble.