Uplifting animals to sentience would be cool
i think all animals are sentient (able to feel) and a good few species are sapient (able to "think") already, probably most of them, if only to a limited extent in some cases, and it really seems like most of the larger mammals are running very similar software to humans. i unironically believe great apes, whales, dolphins and elephants should be considered legal persons and afforded the rights and protections thereof, however the question of liberty is intensely compromised by the fact that almost all of them are seriously endangered and need to be, realistically, kept in some sort of captivity or guardianship to prevent total extinction. i dont know what to do about that, whales in particular you absolutely cannot keep in enclosed tanks ethically, im not educated about the sea pens situation enough to know whats going on with the few cetaceans being kept in those conditions (seems better than SeaWorld at least) but at this point i dont think we're going to be able to keep bonobos alive in the wild much longer, especially. this is the fault of white settler colonialism, so it seems insane to suggest white settler colonialism ("we should just capture all the wild bonobos we can and keep them 'safe' in a facility") as a solution. the people of DR Congo have a bonobo sanctuary i dont personally know much about but seems to be doing good work
