As for the singularity: I could, I think, make a pretty good case that scientific and technological progress is slowing down.
I think that this comment highlights the fact that SIAI has a major brand management problem: SIAI is not concerned with "acceleration" of "progress", but with the development of smarter-that-human AI -- which could occur at a point in time where technology and economic indicators show growth, stagnation or even decline.
But those who push the "acceleration" of "progress" brand, have about 10^3 times our marketing budget.
No disrespect to Gregory -- it is simply the case that the marketing and info that's out there has turned the "Singularity" brand sour -- the term has lost any precise meaning.
But current predictions of what happens when smarter than human AI is made, somewhat rely on there being a positive relation between brain/processing power and technological innovation.
The brain power and processing power of humanity is ever increasing, more human population, more educated humans and more computing power. We can crunch ever bigger data sets. The science we are trying to do requires us to use these bigger data sets as well (LHC, genomic analysis, weather prediction). Perhaps we have nearly exhausted the simple science and we are left with ...
Edit: Q&A is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating, and thanks very much to Harpending and Cochran for their responses.
In response to Kaj's review, Henry Harpending and Gregory Cochran, the authors of the The 10,000 Year Explosion, have agreed to a Q&A session with the Less Wrong community.
If you have any questions for either Harpending or Cochran, please reply to this post with a question addressed to one or both of them. Material for questions might be derived from their blog for the book which includes stories about hunting animals in Africa with an eye towards evolutionary implications (which rose to Jennifer's attention based on Steve Sailer's prior attention).
Please do not kibitz in this Q&A... instead go to the kibitzing area to talk about the Q&A session itself. Eventually, this post will be edited to note that the process has been closed, at which time there should be no new questions.