I don't have anything to say about quantum computing but I did form an opinion about consciousness/self-awareness research in AI: we should actively attempt to

I don't have anything to say about quantum computing but I did form an opinion about consciousness/self-awareness research in AI: we should actively attempt to develop an AI with these characteristics. My logic first assumes that if it could happen it will. Based on that it would be better for it to happen while we're trying than it to happen when we're not even paying attention. It also means that if the AI exhibits some of the intended behaviours that we will be more skeptical of it being fake, where-as if it arises accidentally it could more easily be viewed as real and emergent. We we have cases of behaviours which appear to be self-directed and counter to our continued existence, we can learn to manage it from small cases to larger ones. This last point assumes that we won't have a big-bang step of going from nothing to the full thing to deal with in which case we only accelerated the timeline.