re: Let's talk singularity.....

I'm only peripherally familiar with Kurzweils views, but my understanding is he thinks that everything will change once machines become as smart as humans. At that point things we had never considered before become possible and you could see ridiculous advancements. While this technically may be possible, I don't think it takes politics into account. Yesterday in the self driving car thread it was pointed out how many powerful lobbies (law enforcement, attorneys and insurance) had a vested interest in not letting safer self driving cars become the norm.

I think there will quite possibly be a backlash against enhancing humans and creating obviously smart machines. Will it be something that takes just a generation or 2 to get over the new and unfamiliar, or will it be something like on Star Trek DS9, where the genetic enhancements Dr. Bashir had were outlawed?

Just because we have the capacity to better ourselves doesn't mean we will. People in power do their damnedest to maintain the status quo, and if a technology is disruptive enough that it's seen as a threat to their status quo, they will try to demonize and squash the technology.