---
title: "Moral status · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/moral-status
description: "Moral status is what an entity has when its interests matter in themselves, and have to be counted when we decide what’s right."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Ethics & metaphysics

# Moral status

Definition

Moral status is what an entity has when its interests matter in themselves, and have to be counted when we decide what’s right.

On this site

The Moral weight window shows how much consideration each kind of entity gets under the current dial settings.

Role in the model

The Moral weight window splits consideration among players, non-player characters, animals with experience, scenery and the operator. The split follows from the dial settings. It’s a sketch, labelled as one, and it makes one point: the settings decide who counts before anyone asks the question.

Related

[Sentience](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/sentience)[Utilitarianism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/utilitarianism)[Deontology](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/deontology)

In the trees

[Can they suffer · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=c-bentham)[Taking AI welfare seriously · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=c-long)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)