The argument would maybe be more readily taken if instead of mold, the GP had said "birds". We think birds are kinda neat, but most people hold a perspective with inbuilt human-exceptionalism, and birds are fundamentally not humans.
Birds may communicate complex things to each other, they may construct homes, feel emotions, dream, and even do some things we can't, like fly -- but they don't have Shakespeare or the Primes so if it comes down to us or them, it's us. A lot of humans believe only humans possess "souls".
To fully go into the argument: an alien species may well hold their own form of self-exceptionalism, and they'll have their own practices and history which we can't compete with. It is perfectly possible that there is nothing we could accomplish which would make us read as peers, as opposed to birds, gorillas, or... mold.
(edit: I do think the "at best" above may be unreasonably gloomy -- at best in this outlook, aliens might regard us with compassionate curiosity, as some humans do toward the species we share the earth with. That would be pretty lucky, but not impossible!)
Birds may communicate complex things to each other, they may construct homes, feel emotions, dream, and even do some things we can't, like fly -- but they don't have Shakespeare or the Primes so if it comes down to us or them, it's us. A lot of humans believe only humans possess "souls".
To fully go into the argument: an alien species may well hold their own form of self-exceptionalism, and they'll have their own practices and history which we can't compete with. It is perfectly possible that there is nothing we could accomplish which would make us read as peers, as opposed to birds, gorillas, or... mold.
(edit: I do think the "at best" above may be unreasonably gloomy -- at best in this outlook, aliens might regard us with compassionate curiosity, as some humans do toward the species we share the earth with. That would be pretty lucky, but not impossible!)