[joe_the_user]

Either technologies elevate us to singularity status, or the government causing systemic collapse and we're back where we started, or worse, nuclear annihilation.

Well, I'd kind of agree with that last part .... it's race.

But keep in mind that what we have to do is navigate the very dangerous in-between-times that are coming ... keep in mind that novels can make the process of decay and collapse seem OK. The reality can much more horrific. Ever research the things that happened at the end of WWII. Whole nations (Poland, say) uproot and moved, with a fair portion of the people DEAD as a result. The end of the Roman empire wasn't pretty and people much less dependent on really large scale structures like food distribution networks then (food ... survival, as gp said).

I mean, unlike in a novel, the US government has not become less controlling as it has become more corrupt. Just the opposite...