For a book I didn't particularly enjoy it's stirred up some thought.
First of all - "The Singularity" - as I've noted in my previous 2 posts. It's not going to happen. Certainly not in the manner that the scientists predict. Certainly not at all in the manner predicted by the trans-humanist video I linked to in a previous post on the topic.
"The Singularity" is a fantasy, a scientific heaven, if you will.
My reasoning is thus. First of all we have to contend with various socio-cultural factors that will seek to limit the spread and distribution of wealth - however it is measured. These factors alone would prove enough to derail the best of Utopias.
But more importantly, chances are if it was possible the singularity would have already been reached by another civilization around another star.
I don't subscribe to to the view that we are at all alone in the universe. Isolated, yes, but a necessary isolation imposed upon us by our clumsy and evolving technology. I believe that the universe, where possible, thrives with life. Much of it unrecognized and/or unacknowledged by ourselves. And were it possible for the technology of any species or race to reach this level, then it already would have been reached. The universe, conservatively, is already some 14.7 billion years old. We're relative newcomers on the scene. The Singularity, were it possible, would have been reached and it's ripples would have spread to us. We would have "Made Contact" or been assimilated.
So rather than using the Fermi Paradox against Extra Terrestial life, I'll use it against the the technophile's dream of a virtual heaven or paradise. Not to upset their plans, but the future will be even stranger than we have imagined.