But surely not employees? Many many people are owned, er, employed by corporations, I don't imagine DARPA would automatically disqualify so many folks.

Any reason why there couldn't be a ups_drone_team?

Users will be users. The question is, why weren't the relevant ports blocked by the IT staff? They should be held just as accountable.

OK, then how about dogs? Or dolphins? Do they exhibit what you call "perception" or "thought" or "consciousness". You have to agree that "most of you" would say they do.

Where do you draw the line then? At foxes? Cows? Sheep? Squid?

Now, this "soul" thing you speak about, that's just the stuff of superstition.

Presumably the problem lies in the fact that many (most?) people view animals as having inherently less rights than humans.

Therefore, an e.g. human/cow would therefore have what rights? Those of a human or a cow? Something in between? Could we eat him/it, or at least use its skin for leather?

But you know what I think is the real issue at hand? The fact that we don't recognize that all life is equally valuable. Just because chickens can't talk doesn't mean we can (morally) lord over them and torture them in tiny growing spaces until we drown them in electrified water so we can eat them, for example. But we do. And until animal rights are resolved, these new forms of life will continue to pose a major headache for all involved.