That aside, why can't the Singularity be partitioned off for a while? Just to see if everything is working and it doesn't decide to turn the Earth into computronium or worse? Why this all or nothing scenerio?
Things won't happen overnight. It's not as if we're gonna wake up tomorrow and "the Singularity" will be upon us. There should be plenty of time to get things more or less right. If someone is stupid enough to build SkyNet, then oh well: Sucks to be us! :)
But for the record, if it all comes down to it, I for one will welcome our new supercyborg overlords, and then hopefully they'll let me join them. :p
"The Singularity" is not a specific object or event. But you're certainly right that any potentially world-changing technology should be extremely well tested before widespread release.
Just to see if everything is working and it doesn't decide to turn the Earth into computronium or worse?
Depending on the specifics, that could be a good thing...