anyone with a smartphone and a data connection has effective Intelligence Amplification

Woah, rein your horses my man! Having a smartphone doesn't make anyone more intelligent, quite the contrary indeed, if I'm to believe what I see everyday in the street, public transports, restaurants, social events etc. The ability to find more information faster may provide Knowledge Amplification, but it has nothing to do with the Intelligence of the person that carries the smartphone. I'd say the smartphone is more intelligent, if anything is to be.

Is the "random" selection for additional screening truly random?

I remember 10-11 years ago, I used to fly every week with Southwest Airlines out of Boston's Logan. For the first few months, I was "randomly" selected at each and every flight at boarding time. I was assuming it was because I was travelling with a French passport - I remember how popular French were at that time in the US. Then, after a couple months, I was never selected again, presumably because Southwest had built a profile on me showing that I was a "good" passenger. Is there any real substance to my (admittedly biased) assumptions?

were strongly at variance with well-established beliefs ...

Isn't that how most, if not all, scientific discoveries are made?

None of that achieves consciousness. I don't believe in souls, but I do believe in consciousness. Can it be said that consciousness is a form of singularity? The point is, to achieve consciousness you will need "calculations" of a different order than anything we have now.

Come on man, get off it now. I don' t understand this attitude that makes developers responsible for the fact that malicious or evil people spread vriuses, deface web sites, hack servers etc. What the fuck? By accruing pressure on developers for more secure software, we are completey ignoring the root problem. Worse, we actually encourage it, give it a certain validity.

It's not the developers that are bad,there's a bunch of people out there making the internet look like it's constantly under siege - which it is, as far as I can see. The real problem is that our society is sick, for only a sick society would permit, even encourage such things. Than's what we need to address, now.