Virtual Organisms Raise Questions About Rights and Moral Status

A simulation of a fruit fly’s actual neural representation is making the ethics of manipulating virtual organisms more concrete than a simple 3D model or scripted program.

The issue extends to future simulations of humans: if a computer simulation could interact and behave like a human, it remains unclear whether it would have rights, agency, or independent moral status, or would merely be a sophisticated simulation.

The same uncertainty applies to LLMs and other synthetic intelligence: it is not known whether they are sentient or have morally significant inner experience. One view expressed is that neither real nor virtual beings should be tortured, even if the virtual entity exists only on transistors.