Apologies, I did indeed misremember who it was that was talking about "crazy notions", that was indeed Perplexed.

You seem to be collecting some downvotes that should have gone to me. To even things out, I have upvoted three of your comments. Feel free to downvote three of mine.

I fully agree, by the way, on the distinction between the moral relevance of simulated humans, who have no ability to physically influence our world, and the moral relevance of distant people here on earth, who physically influence us daily (though indirectly through a chain of intermediary agents).

Simulated persons do have the ability to influence us informationally, though, even if they are unaware of our existence and don't recognize their own status as simulations. I'm not sure what moral status I would assign to a simulated novelist - particularly if I liked his work.

ETA: To Normal_Anomaly: I do not deny people the right to care about simulations in terms of their own terminal values. I only deny them the right to insist that I care about simulations. But I do claim the right to insist that other people care about Chinese, for reasons similar to those Tim has offered.