Humans seem very empathetic to me, since we do worry about, for example, the treatment of animals -- perhaps not planaria, but the important thing here is that we would dependably worry if we thought they minded. I cannot think of any mental distress that we would not be concerned about, no matter how far removed the 'organism'.
But of course we are also very cruel, and I do see that as perversion, because it is empathy turned against itself. For example, regarding our fascination with torture, at least that departs from the concept that torture is bad. Cruelty is 'interesting' because it stimulates our empathy. We wouldn't care about causing harm (causing harm for its own sake) if we didn't understand it was harm in the first place.
Whether people have empathy for animals varies a lot. I know at least one prominent Less Wronger who when discussing vegetarianism said recently that his utility function doesn't have a term for non-human animals suffering. Moreover, history is clear that many humans don't even have more much empathy for much beyond their own tribal group, and even when they have a theory of mind good enough to deceive and fight them, they still might not care.
If the beings who make the simulation are much smarter than we are, then I see no reason why they wouldn't take o...
My father, who is home recovering from surgery, emailed the following web page to me and a few other members of my family, and expressed interest in reading interesting responses.
Any thoughts?