[georgemcbay]

It is pretty easy to ignore the suffering of others if you can convince yourself that it is a different and simpler form of suffering than you feel -- just look at how a lot of humans (and I'm talking about ones that are accepted by society, not crazy psychopaths) treat animals (eg. circus elephants).

[infogulch]

Exactly. For a being that is capable of simulating the entire universe at the quantum level we may be no more "sentient" in their minds than ants are in our minds.