there will be others who aren't so cautious, and who want to conduct experiments like hotwiring together cognitive modules that are merely brain-inspired

This is why it's important that we have high fidelity simulations sooner rather than later, while the necessary hardware rests in the hands of the handful of institutions that can afford top tier supercomputers, rather than an idiot in a garage trying to build a better Roomba. There would be fewer players in the field, making the research easier to monitor, and, more importantly, it would be much more difficult to jerry rig a bunch of modules together. The more cumbersome the hardware the harder experimentation will be, making high fidelity copies more likely to provide computer intelligence before hotwired modules or neuromorphically inspired architectures.