At the same time, it’s more than plausible that the extinction of humans would be very bad for insects, because their habitats would grow significantly without humans.

But anyway, I agree that even if insect suffering is really massive, it doesn’t swamp x-risk consideration. (Personally, I don’t think insect suffering matters much at all, though that’s really more of an instinct on “torture vs. dust specks” in general, though it does confuse me as an issue.) I’m just wondering how important it is in the scale of things.

Thanks for the response though! I appreciate it.

I think doesn’t work if you think insects lead overwhelmingly net negative lives right now, and the world would be a better place if fewer insects are around to reproduce/create huge numbers of awful lives. But I might be missing something.