I did get the impression that some took your questions as purely rhetorical, soldiers fighting against the credibility of SIAI. I took you as someone hoping to be convinced but with a responsible level of wariness.

That was my impression, also. As a result, I found many elements of the responses to XiXiDu to be disappointing. While there were a few errors in his post (e.g. attributing Kurweil views to SIAI), in general it should have been taken as an opportunity to clarify and throw down some useful links, rather than treat XiXiDu (who is also an SIAI donor!) as a low-g interloper.