This is a little defensive, and I'm not entirely sure of whether the approach is a good or a bad thing. As a reader, I would prefer the text to get right to the "interesting stuff", instead of spending time on what feels like only a remotely related tangent.

I'm not sure of how likely this introduction is to actually persuade people who are skeptical about Singularity predictions. But as usual, it will probably have a better effect on fence-sitters and people who haven't encountered the debate before.