You raise a good point here, which relates to my question: Is Good's "intelligence explosion" a mathematically well-defined idea, or is it just a vague hypothesis that sounds plausible? When we are talking about something as poorly defined as intelligence, it seems a bit ridiculous to jump to these "lather, rinse, repeat, FOOM, the universe will soon end" conclusions as many people seem to like to do. Is there a mathematical description of this recursive process which takes into account its own complexity, or are these just very vague and overly reductionist claims by people who perhaps suffer from an excessive attachment to their own abstract models and a lack of exposure to the (so-called) real world?

Well I just want to rule the world. To want to abstractly "save the world" seems rather absurd, particularly when it's not clear that the world needs saving. I suspect that the "I want to save the world" impulse is really the "I want to rule the world" impulse in disguise, and I prefer to be up front about my motives...