> Given this, I'm not sure why singularity promoters give that much of a shit whether people believe it. In my case that would be because the default scenario

> Given this, I'm not sure why singularity promoters give that much of a shit whether people believe it. In my case that would be because the default scenario for a technological singularity is Eternal Doom. By default, if AI researchers do not pay extreme attention, the first smarter-than-human AI will have different goals than we do, and recognize us as a threat to those goals and eliminate us all. Or squash us like bugs without even paying much attention. Or use our constituent atoms to maximize its goals. Or keep us drugged and lobotomised in soft cages, so that we're safe and happy. Or something. And of course, we won't be able to stop it, because it will outsmart us at every turn (we can do the same to chimps). This is why this singularity thing is at least worth looking into. Being able to nuke away our civilization is bad enough, but this could be even worse. Or it could turn our world into a paradise. And of course, with more believers, there will be more donors to the organizations working on this, more researchers working on it… So belief does count, to some extent. (On the other hand, becoming angry at non-believers like a crusader is unlikely to spur positive reactions. By cleaning up this image description, you actually helped our cause.)