> why do you care
I care about the health and happiness of my fellow humans. It's not unusual to seek restrictions for the community if they prevent harm. Seat belts?
> Obviously AI is not conscious
That may be obvious to you and me, but I am absolutely certain that that is not obvious to the majority of mankind, many (most?) of whom have never even contemplated what "consciousness" means.
> I want to understand your impulse to control others
If you saw someone walking into the path of a train while scrolling on their phone, wouldn't you reach out to stop them? Or would that just be your "impulse to control others"?
> I ask these questions not to be combative.
In my version of reality, questions are never combative.
Conversational AI presents (non-IT) people with the powerful illusion that it is conscious. (I personally have a friend who argues vehemently that ChatGPT is conscious - admittedly, he has a diagnosed mental illness, but still.) People become emotionally attached, over-trust it and rely on it for guidance. I understand teenagers are particularly prone to this. Real social interactions...
It really doesn't. The imaginary axis is symmetrical and it makes sense to make it horizontal - there's no intrinsic physical difference between left and right. But it makes sense to map the real axis +ve/-ve onto (gravitational) up/down. That's why the Mandelbrot set looks so much more beautiful with that orientation (as it's displayed at https://fractal.institute/introduction-to-fractals/how-to-ge...) - it's a Buddha!