I’m not sure I buy that. There is no reason machines can’t deal with this stuff, it’s purely mechanistic. There’s nothing about a septic system maintenance that requires philosophy of mind.

Good answer.

Given how much creative energy sci fi has put into this question, there’s probably a lot of material available to speak to this.

Dan Simmons’ Hyperion cycle addresses this extensively as well, and Peter F Hamilton’s Void series offers another take.

These authors all really dig into what we could do with AI as powerful tools, and examines what might happen if they analyze humanity and decide we’re not their kind of people.

There’s an awkward stage in R&D when you need more funding to level up, but you don’t want to give away the fundamentals, because that’s your IP. Presentations tend to be quite hands-wavy at this stage.

Also this happened to the Albuquerque aquifer. Thanks, Air Force!