On balance I'm not too happy with the history of existence. As Douglas Adams wrote, "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." I'd rather not be here myself, so I find the creation of other sentients a morally questionable act. On the other hand, artificial intelligence offers a theoretical way out of this mess. Worries about ennui strike me as deeply misguided. Oppression, frailty, and stupidity makes hanging out in this world unpleasant, not any lack of worthwhile pursuits. Believe me, I could kill a few millennia no problem. If Kurzweil's dreams of abundance (in every sense) come true, I won't be complaining.

Now, the notion of a negative but nonfatal Singularity deserves consideration. The way I typically see things, there's either death or Singularity in the long run and both are good. Indefinite life extension without revolutionary economic and social change would be a nightmare, though perhaps better at every individual point than the pain of aging.

Your concerns about the ultimate fate of the universe are intriguing but too distant to arouse much emotion from me. Who knows what will happen then? Such entities might travel to other universes or forge their own. I'll just say that judging by the present record, intelligence and suffering go together. Whether we can escape this remains to be seen.