“It seems plausible that with technology we can, in the fairly near future, create (or become) creatures who surpass humans in every intellectual and creative dimension”

“BECOME” is the operative word .

Having two arms, two pets & a beer belly may be part of most definitions of a human being, but they are not necessary for consciousness

If you characterise consciousness as a place.
Being human gives a route/conduit to that place.
But there are likely to be other routes to that place.

AI / the singularity – more power to IT !

No need to worry. Microsoft will get the contract for the operating systems, and we will all be too busy upgrading for anything to ever work properly.

Not me. I have an Apple. You guys will all be dominated by your PCs, while us Apple owners will get to drink frappachinos while lounging around in strangely retro-yet-futuristic "relaxation hubs" while our sleek, sexy little Macs (who, frankly, are already more intelligent than us) will be designing funky, amazing websites to amuse us with.

I’ve seen both “I, Robot” and “Idiocracy”. While Will Smith was very convincing in saving the world form evil AI twisting Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics to its own advantage. I found Idiocracy more realistic and disturbing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy

i've been saying similar things from time to time, but found that no one cares. bit too blue skyish perhaps.

personally, i prefer to 'save' natural humanity on alternate days. in between, roll on superwoman. and/or superbot. homo sap has made such a mess of things that we really deserve to get booted off the stage.

fortunately, this matter is quite out of our hands. everything is in oz.