I was a believer. It seemed completely obvious that we'll soon see superhuman AI. When reading 'Permutation City' and 'Diaspora' I was bothered by how there was no AI, just emulations. That didn't seem right.

A common plot device - humans need human-like protagonists to identify with - or the story doesn't sell.

Such scenarios then get "reified" in people's minds, and a whole lot of nonsense results.