Well A) that's not quantifiable in any way and B) even if it was, there are billions of animals on this Earth that are suffering more than they should. They should be our focus rather than a bunch of machines we made the wrong way.
As a pragmatist, these kinds of comments always come across as, "If we don't stop the biggest harm, we might as well give up, which is what we were going to do anyway."
You don't want to do this. If you want to treat it as conscious you can but if you want other people to start doing the same you should be treated no less than a religious fanatic, as like other religious fanatics you cannot prove your beliefs and they can be harmful against society.
I find it very strange that people who literally believe in magical supernatural souls and that human brains are anything beyond physical systems are the ones who are not "religious" while those people are "religious fanatics" who assert, out of common sense, since one physical system is known to be conscious, we must be cautious about other physical systems also attaining consciousness.
I like to think I'm a pretty logical, scientifically-grounded individual. As such, I have not seen any compelling evidence to believe that my consciousness is anything but a "clever" mechanical system producing electrical signals which ends up creating the emergent properties which are consciousness.
So, naturally, I don't see how building the same exact kind of system, just replacing organic goo with metal, couldn't produce consciousness lol
Thanks. I'm disappointed in the other comments who didn't get it lol. I'm also disappointed in their obtuse takes. They unironically need to watch that episode.