Seconded. Today’s “narrow”applications are quite wide compared to the expert systems of decades ago. I wouldn’t say we are in a second AI winter when cool new applications of DNNs pop up frequently on HN.
Adding on to what you are saying, it depends on what one's objectives are. Books do a great job at exposing concepts but mastery is only gained by experience.
If I read a book on pottery, but I never apply those concepts, it doesn't do me much good. Furthermore, refining one's craft is almost always much more time consuming than reading alone. Reading is necessary but not sufficient to thrive and be at one's best.
I definitely think a cyberpunk-ish future is more likely than a pure kurzweil outcome. That is, the increase in wellbeing of an average joe will be more linear and that of the well-off will be more exponential.
It's inspiring. I consider Kurzweil, Diamandis, etc. to view the impact of technology with wildly rose-colored glasses. I view this as one possible trajectory of our future - being on the extreme positive end, whereas a very negative outcome may be akin to a "great filter" event.
I think the extreme negative or positive outcomes are both unlikely long-tail events but having a "singularity" that benefits the wellbeing of humanity is definitely worth striving for.