I assume the th couldn't be copied because it's a ligature, which makes the publication look better.
Ok, just be aware it makes it harder for others to quote your papers. (I originally intended to quote the last 3 paragraphs, but there were too many characters to fix so I cut it down to 1.)
Correct. This is a key piece of recommended differential technological progress, and this recommendation is stated explicitly in both "AI as a negative and positive factor in global risk" and in "Intelligence Explosion: Evidence and Import."
I see, so the argument wasn't meant to rule out the possibility that there are some sub-topics within WBE that we should accelerate (similar to how SIAI thinks there are sub-topics within de novo AI like decision theory that we should accelerate).
You are correct.
(Also: different people have different opinions within SIAI, but it's simplifying and not grossly inaccurate to sometimes talk about "what SIAI thinks.")
Here is a short new publication from the Singularity Institute, on the 2-day workshop that followed Singularity Summit 2011.
Note the new publication design. We are currently porting our earlier publications to this template, too.