The cognitive science angle is quite important, if subtle. Here is a take on it: How was uploading achieved? The first stages were fairly straightforward - high resolution scanning equipment, computational neuroscience and lots and lots of destructive testing of small pieces of neural tissue. Eventually it got to the level of small mammals. Now, in the real world I think at this point it would be just a matter of scaling things up and soon you would have human uploads. However, let's posit that in EP they ran into roadblocks: the bigger brain emulations did not work as they ought to according to theory. The problems were high-level cognitive issues rather than low-level neural issues. Maybe it was something weird with their consciousness, but it was impossible to tell from the outside. The researchers needed test animals that could report back what they were experiencing. Meanwhile other cognitive science had begun nosing around uplifting for other reasons - general curiosity about cognition, for testing cognition enhancement intended for humans, to test out ways of growing customized brains (which would later turn out to be really useful for making morph brains - those +5 SAV and INT bonuses have to come from somewhere). So getting uplifts for testing uploading made complete sense: you would have a fairly human-like brain that can learn things and report its subjective state, and is not protected by regulations about person-hood (here I am assuming the generally dystopian standard EP view: in reality it seems easier to get human subjects permission than to use animals - especially primates - for much research, especially if it is a postmortem brain donated to science). So the big projects in neuroscience were all benefiting from uplift projects, and there was a fedback. One can imagine it as the Apollo Project producing useful results to the Large Hadron Collider and the Human Genome Project, and vice versa - the first uploaded uplifts gave valuable clues to what was going wrong in the process, and early crude uploading helped map out what should be fixed in uplift brains, and all of this really helping figuring out how minds in general really work and can be changed. Good for everybody, except maybe some of the research materials. "We do what we must because we can For the good of all of us Except the ones who are dead" :-)

It was my understanding that the inner system hypercorps were largely getting out of full-uplift research, for exactly those reasons, and that the new cash cow was smart animals, who have most of the usefulness without that pesky self-awareness and social conscience getting in the way. Most types of uplifts already exist, and while I imagine the hypercorps are applying some new research to what they already have, I don't think they're majorly pushing down that path of inquiry anymore.

MrPrim wrote:

Now, in Anarchist/Autonomist habs? Pursued by obsessive geneartists? Sure, that makes sense. But I can't figure out a plausible reason why the Hypercorps would get in on this actions.

There is another possible reason that Autonomist habitats may engage in uplifting research: Ethics. There is an argument in biomedical ethics that says that it is both good and correct to atempt to grant human-equivalent sentience to animals when it becomes possible to do so. One might consider the possibility that this is the argument played out in those habitats. As for Hypercorps, profitable spin-offs from R&D are always welcome. From modifying animal brains to host more human-like consciousness, the possibility of serendipitous discovery of new cognitive augmentations, neurological implants, and design ideas for morphs would be very real. R&D costs in the short term that lead to long term revenue streams resulting in profit are worthwhile investments.

It does say that... and then it goes onto a discussion of current new Uplift plans and the latest Uplift arms race. The narrator even makes a comment about betting that Dogs will get Uplifted before Cats. EDIT: Man, I wrote this this morning and it seems to have come off, snippy. I didn't intend for that. My bad, ya'll, my bad.