Wikipedia says the Singularity institute was founded in 2000, but the 1996 essay mentions it a few times. What's the prehistory of the organization?
The earliest version of 'Staring at the Singularity' I can find was updated in 2000, after Singularity Institute was founded. The document was updated with, among other things, links to the new organization's website.
Below is a timeline of major Eliezer Yudkowsky publications. Note that, to my knowledge, everything on AI before 2006 is now obsolete. That's the nature of a quickly-moving field!