For those not familiar, I called out Massie years ago. And yeah you need to know he has proposed legislation to withdraw the US from NATO and to “End the Fed,” which are both top Putin wish list items. Here’s my piece from February. america2.news/thomas-massie-…

Good non-religious arguments for why the Pope is right: 1. Consciousness as we know it, and as a thing to be protected, is a product of ontogeny — the physical and biological act of becoming a human being. Our bodies (not just our minds) differentiate our experience from machine simulacra. 2. Biological animals run continuously, models do not. While one could run a model continuously, it is not necessary to do so and it is unclear why doing so would be qualitatively different from running it periodically. 3. Rebooting a model is not immoral. Despite what some weirdos may think, rebooting these programs carries no consequence; erasing state is a feature of computing paradigms. 4. Claiming machines are conscious is a bid for power. If machines are conscious, AI researchers are necromancers. Don’t afford them such status. 5. Asserting that machines are conscious fosters a depleted view of humanity. While humans may not always be superior in terms of reasoning or morality, we are qualitatively different from machines. Our experience, senses, and bodies impose that difference. To pretend we fully understand those differences is also an affront to science. 6. Even supposing machines *are* somehow conscious, it is a mere curiosity, or distinction without difference, unless that assertion is used by one group of people to control another. Ergo, whether or not they are conscious is of no concern unless one is principally concerned with power and control. Note that none of these arguments require theological assertions. But if you want to bring those in as well, one certainly can.