IEEE Spectrum is running a collection of essays on the singularity.

The Who's Who guide is kind of a cutesy overview of (some of) the major players in the Singularity. Mildly entertaining, I suppose.

John Horan's The Consciousness Conundrum makes the argument that replicating human consciousness in the human substrate is a pipedream that distracts scientists from doing more important work. Horan makes a pretty airtight case. After all, there's a lot of disagreement as to what consciousness is and how it works. Plus, the computers that will be required to emulate conscious thought don't exist yet.

Open and shut case -- it will never happen!

Okay, I guess I'm not really selling this series of essays, but finally we get to Vernor Vinge and his Signs of the Singularity. Vinge finds points of agreement and disagreement with the other authors, and notes the following:

Both Horgan and Nordmann express indignation that singularity speculation distracts from the many serious, real problems facing society. This is a reasonable position for anyone who considers the singularity to be bogus, but some form of the point should also be considered by less skeptical persons: if the singularity happens, the world passes beyond human ken. So isn't all our singularity chatter a waste of breath? There are reasons, some minor, some perhaps very important, for interest in the singularity. The topic has the same appeal as other great events in natural history (though I am more comfortable with such changes when they are at a paleontological remove). More practically, the notion of the singularity is simply a view of progress that we can use—along with other, competing, views—to interpret ongoing events and revise our local planning. And finally: if we are in a soft takeoff, then powerful components of superintelligence will be available well before any complete entity. Human planning and guidance could help avoid ghastliness, or even help create a world that is too good for us naturals to comprehend.

As a bonus, Vinge is also featured on a video explaining how to prepare for the singularity. By all means, let's not be caught unprepared!