Alistair Young

This payoff matrix should be easy to grasp for even the most mediocre of intellects. (Even those whom, by that same null hypothesis, could reasonably be presumed to be unconscious automata.)

... and indeed this argument is isomorphic to the Descartean stupidity that, in the early twentieth century, led to animal vivisections being routinely done for the entertainment of the public because "they are automata and incapable of feeling pain".

Everyone who makes arguments like these should be tied up in my basement for a red-hot poker experience that will only end when they can demonstrate to my satisfaction that they are more than a bag of meat containing electrochemical signals that one might interpret a certain way.

Nonsense, says the prime speaker. There’s nothing in there but meat doing what might charitably be called elementary matrix math with chemically-mediated ion channels - no nanocircuitry, no photonics, in fact the light of consciousness is literally absent, not just figuratively.

And he has evidence to prove it! He took the liberty of capturing a few for analysis, and there’s no sign of anything but reflex actions all the way down. Twitchy meat, that’s all it is. Look, he says, I brought one here to show you, if you’d like to observe the vivisection…

...of course, the Tree also includes some moderates who don't want to go all "kill all humans" because of a few assholes. They just want to brain-rip the assholes and publish their mind-states on the extranet for anyone who needs to populate their open-source hellcubes.

It's a public service, really. And not even unethical¹. After all, by the principle of symmetry, they must like that sort of thing. 1. Your civilization may vary.