Given human researchers of constant speed, computing speeds double every 18 months.

Human researchers, using top-of-the-line computers as assistants.

Indeed. For me, that was the most glaring conceptual problem. That and attempting to predict the course of evolution with minimal reference to evolutionary theory. There is a literature on how cultural systems evolve. For a specific instance see this:

The third tipping point was the appearance of technology capable of accumulating and manipulating vast amounts of information outside humans, thus removing them as bottlenecks to a seemingly self-perpetuating process of knowledge explosion.