I'll admit I fall into the camp of not believing the "Johnny Depp Transcendence AI" is right around any corner (neither is an Martian apartment complex for that matter). But I also believe it's the journey to such AI that's important. Even if we will never reach this ultimate goal.
We're already reaping the benefits of what we have learned from this struggle. And I think we gain so much insight into ourselves as we try to reverse engineer the most important part of our meat vehicle.
To what end? Is a computer with our collective brains as AI orbiting a sun more or less than what we are? what should we be striving for as an ultimate utopian end to progress? Does/can such an end even conceptually exist?
We're already reaping the benefits of what we have learned from this struggle. And I think we gain so much insight into ourselves as we try to reverse engineer the most important part of our meat vehicle.