I see what you mean to an extent, and I also just moved over, but it’s worth remembering that Digg -> Reddit was the same afaik. Like Reddit had been around and established for a decent amount of time before the fall of Digg. (This is second-hand info because I wasn’t around at the time)
The last point - “We can’t have people eager to separate “human, the biological category, from a person or a unit worthy of moral respect.”” is one I understand where they’re coming from, but am very divided, perhaps because my academic background involves animal rights and ethics.
The question of analogising animals and humans is so tricky with a very long history - many people have a kneejerk reaction against any analogy of nonhuman animals and (especially marginalised) humans, often for good reasons. For instance, the strongest reason is the history of oppression involving comparisons of marginalised groups to animals, specifically meant to dehumanise and contribute to further oppression/genocide/etc.
But to my mind, I don’t find the analogies inherently wrong, although they’re often used very clumsily and without care. There’s often a difference in approach that entirely colours people’s responses to it; namely, whether they think it’s trying to drag humans down, or trying to bring nonhuman animals up to having moral status. And that last is imo a worthy endeavour, because I do think that we should to some extent separate “human, the biological category, from a person or a unit worthy of moral respect.” I have moral respect for my dog, which is why I don’t hurt her - it’s because of her own moral worth, not some indirect moral worth as suggested by Kant or various other philosophers.
I don’t think the debate is the same with AI, at least not yet, and I think it probably shouldn’t be, at least not yet. And I’m also somewhat sceptical of the motivations of people who make these analogies. But that doesn’t mean there’ll never be a place for it - and if a place for it arises it’s just going to need to be done with care, like animal rights needs to be done with care.
Note that it might take a while though, so if anyone wants to get this done before the 30th (so you can use API-based tools to wipe comments), request it ASAP.
I requested…maybe two weeks or so ago? And it only came through today. So get to it y’all