[Tloewald]

AI seems more feasible than interstellar travel. I think the singularity or whatever is far further off than people guess because the stuff we don't know is a lot harder than we can know, but interstellar travel either requires massive breakthroughs in physics or engineering on a level we have yet to seriously contemplate.

the proponents of any given tier of AI approaches always claims that consciousness will arise out of just doing more of what they're doing now. I doubt it.

Of course, an AI that wipes us out before figuring out how to repair itself would be kind of dumb.

BTW a recent episode of Elementary was based on this topic and was, by the standards of network TV, stunningly accurate on all the issues.