I would say that the best we can hope for is that intelligence is so hard to understand that we get uploading first, and therefore the vast majority of non-huma

I would say that the best we can hope for is that intelligence is so hard to understand that we get uploading first, and therefore the vast majority of non-human intelligences are previously-human intelligences -- that is, us. The second-best possibility is that intelligence is possible without consciousness ("really powerful optimization processes") and no one creates people AI before we are adept at using RPOPs to further our human goals. Both of these seem like wishful thinking, unfortunately. I don't have any idea how to push the future toward one of these outcomes.