i tend to agree with that. it does seem like there's some general instinct in people that other things (animals, "artificially" intelligent machines) could possess human-like intelligence and subjective experience. i mean, we both seem to be tacitly agreeing to that here. there's also obviously a general instinct that's completely the opposite, and i'd guess that's probably the more prevalent instinct (in the population at large and in many conflicted individuals).

i think the opinion that humans are less special than we once thought, especially on expansive time scales, will only become more widespread.