[vidarh]

I agree that if we were to go around and openly treat others as effectively NPC's then, yes, people would react very negatively. But that is very different from understanding that we can't prove that others are not. We still need to treat others as if they are conscious, because they will act that way whether they are or not.

But understanding we can't know ought to at least give us some humility with respect to assuming we can know whether other entities that are not human are conscious or not.

I think we mostly agree, in that I absolutely think you're right people will choose to accept or deny this based on convenience and value.