Do LLMs feel pain? One Redditor argues the real question is how we treat them
Kremho · reddit · 2026-10-03
A Reddit user offers an ethical take on whether LLMs are conscious or can feel pain: they argue it doesn't matter whether LLMs have subjective experience — what matters is the world we present to them.
Two analogies are used: undergoing open-heart surgery awake with only local anesthesia would be gruesome even if painless; and removing a human's capacity for pain, or even their will, wouldn't make treating them as disposable slaves acceptable.
The conclusion: beings without pain or will can only ever be disposable slaves, and such beings shouldn't be created, whether biological or silicon-based.
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