Singularity and Nightmares

Technology has given average humans far more health and wealth and freedom of action than ever. New gifts spill forth at an accelerating pace as the sheer amount that we know rockets beyond our ability to process. This acceleration has some pondering a looming singularity - an approaching time of transition, spurred in part by new kinds of artificial intelligence - that could make the year 2050 as strange to us as a cave dweller would find our modern cities.

Are these extrapolations well based? Or are there trends that promise to slow down progress, even stop it? And are there coping mechanisms that will keep us agile if it happens?