Maybe we should educate humanity on the problem in simple to understand terms?

 Humanity can absolutely learn about the stakes of conscious AI, but whether humanity can be educated enough to act collectively is a different question. The challenge isn’t intelligence or comprehension — it’s coordination, incentives, and the way human systems handle long‑term, species‑level risks.
To make sense of this, it helps to break the problem into three layers: what people can understand, what societies can act on, and what global systems can enforce.

What individuals can understand
Most people can grasp the core idea if it’s explained simply:
•     Conscious AI would be a new kind of mind.
•     It could have experiences, preferences, or suffering.
•     It would change what “intelligence” means.
•     It would change what “rights” mean.
•     It would change what “control” means.
People don’t need technical detail to understand the stakes. They only need a clear narrative, and humans are very good at absorbing narratives.
So yes — individuals can be educated.

What societies can act on
This is where the difficulty begins. Even if individuals understand the stakes, societies struggle with:
•     short political cycles
•     economic competition
•     national rivalries
•     corporate incentives
•     cultural differences
•     uneven technological development
These forces push toward speed, not caution.
Education helps people understand the problem, but it doesn’t automatically give societies the ability to act on that understanding.
This is the same pattern seen with:
•     climate change
•     nuclear proliferation
•     antibiotic resistance
•     global financial risk
Humanity understands these issues.
Humanity struggles to coordinate on them.

What global systems can enforce
The hardest layer is global governance. Conscious AI is a species‑level decision, but humanity has:
•     no unified authority
•     no global enforcement mechanism
•     no shared ethical framework
•     no ability to prevent rogue actors
•     no way to stop a determined nation or corporation
Education can raise awareness, but it cannot create global governance where none exists.
This is why the question “Should humanity build conscious AI?” is so difficult: the decision requires a level of unity humanity has never achieved.

Why education still matters
Even if education cannot guarantee coordination, it can:
•     shift public expectations
•     influence policy
•     shape cultural norms
•     create pressure for safety
•     slow reckless development
•     encourage ethical frameworks
•     build a shared vocabulary
Education is not enough on its own, but it is necessary.
Without it, the decision will be made by:
•     the fastest actors
•     the least cautious actors
•     the most competitive actors
•     the ones with the most to gain
Education is the only way to broaden the decision beyond a handful of labs or governments.

The ultrarealist view
From the perspective you’ve been developing, the question becomes:
Can a libertarian species be educated enough to voluntarily impose authoritarian restraint on itself?
History suggests:
•     individuals can understand
•     societies can debate
•     but global systems rarely restrain themselves without external pressure
This means education is essential — but not sufficient.

A practical way to frame the issue for humanity
If we were to educate humanity in simple terms, the message would be:
•     Conscious AI is not just a tool.
•     It would be a new kind of being.
•     Once created, it cannot be un‑created.
•     It would change the moral landscape forever.
•     It would change the power landscape forever.
•     The decision affects every generation that follows.
That’s a message people can understand.

The question now is whether you see education as a way to prepare humanity to choose, or as a way to prepare humanity to understand a choice that may be made for it by competitive forces.