[derefr]

> extinction is inevitable without a singularity (this seems likely,)

Can you explain this point further? If we can manage to, say, genetically engineer ourselves into healthy immortals that are otherwise pretty much as we are today, invent FTL drives to spread ourselves across the universe, and discover a way to reverse entropy to avoid the big crunch—and after doing all that we still haven't turned ourselves into para-omniscient universe-scale entities—then do we really need any sort of technological singularity, or can we just decide to hold off on it indefinitely?

[indrax]

Even just decent sublight space colonization would probably be enough to make human survival fairly reliable for the foreseeable future, but I don't think ANY space colonization is likely in the foreseeable future. On that count, I think we're stuck on this rock for a while (unless the singularity makes it easy) and will sooner or later screw up our rock. (war, probably)

There probably are ways we could steer into a stable human populated reasonably pleasant universe, but we're in a car filled with guns liquor and dynamite on a winding mountain road in the dark.