I agree that a poet or an artist probably wouldn't have much to contribute to the task of actually making the Singularity happen. However, they could contribute to the tasks of raising public awareness, building positive PR, generating discourse, and presenting the ideas involved to the general public. In fact, Charles Stross, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, and other writers, are doing just that, and they're good at it.
Actually, this reminds me of what Mariesa van Houten says in Michael Flynn's Firestar, when she's asked why she bothers focusing on fine arts education at all (paraphrased from memory): "The new generation will need scientists and builders. But it will also need a voice".
(of course, all of the above is contingent upon the Singularity actually being likely to happen, of which I am not personally convinced, but still).
I agree that a poet or an artist probably wouldn't have much to contribute to the task of actually making the Singularity happen.
I don't think Eliezer was saying that at all.
Today's post, We Don't Really Want Your Participation was originally published on 10 September 2007. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Radical Honesty, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.