Thx for commenting!

Chimpanzees seem to exhibit human traits such as self awareness, theory of mind, appreciation of beauty, language, problem solving, vendettas and so forth. I would think the hard step would be earlier than this.

I admit I am not extremely confident about the precise location of the hard step. Obviously, if the hard step is really there, it is somewhere beyond the level of intelligence exhibited by modern AI software.

I don't think China is a dictatorship, because its the Chinese communist party in charge, rather than one specific individual. This isn't just argument over semantics - while China is comparatively authoritarian, there isn't a single point of failure, one person with absolute power who can go insane and wreck the country.

My impression is that the Politburo Standing Committee is in charge (7 people). It might be better than one person but I still don't want those 7 to rule the world. Even less I want them to rule the world with power no dictator has ever possessed before.