This argument seems very similar to “AI will never create art,” though. Given enough time and resources, how can we be sure that AI and robots can’t do anything a human can do? Other civilizations in the universe probably figured this out and more countless times already.

This is very well-written and thought-provoking.

I didn’t interpret those terrorists as the heroes at all. I think they were meant to have equal levels of moral ambiguity vs the Human-ASI hybrid who was controlling humans with a hive mind. Both could be easily misunderstood by an outsider.