I agree with you on the practical sense: the degree of complexity of artrophod brains is clearly very small, and our capability to affect the existence of very small beings is extremly low. In fact, this activism competes with practical animal welfare (see here).
On the theoretical side, my view is that conscience is epiphenomenal, and consequently, it is both absolutely real, but its assessment becomes exponentially harder with distance to our own neuroanatomy.
I agree with you on the practical sense: the degree of complexity of artrophod brains is clearly very small, and our capability to affect the existence of very small beings is extremly low. In fact, this activism competes with practical animal welfare (see here).
On the theoretical side, my view is that conscience is epiphenomenal, and consequently, it is both absolutely real, but its assessment becomes exponentially harder with distance to our own neuroanatomy.