It is surely true we have no idea how difficult constructing an AGI is. It could require wholly new forms of hardware e.g. photon computation or parallelism sim

It is surely true we have no idea how difficult constructing an AGI is. It could require wholly new forms of hardware e.g. photon computation or parallelism similar to the brain's neuron might be a prerequisite. It is intriguing (I think) we know AGI is possible, I think we get there by emulations/ems if in no other way. Civilizations might rise and fall before it becomes feasible. I expect consciousness to be a lower level product, the development of language, reasoning, arithmetic, those are high level products. What's odd about our efforts in computer science is that we are plausibly going to be able to replace the higher functions without the lower ones such as mobility, consciousness. Moravec's Paradox is a kind of deep truth, perhaps more than we presently understand. The other inkling is that there is something Lovecraftian about the brain or intelligence in general. Consider how upsetting the atomic weapons were in the 20th, evolution theory in the 19th. I think it likely that venturing into the interior will reveal a truth mankind shall feel is at least as horrifying, probably more than giant bombs or genetic ancestry because it would register as being inescapable.