I think you are confused in thinking that humans are somehow not just also running a program that reacts to pain and whatnot.
You feel sympathy for animals, and more sympathy for humans. I don’t think that requires any special explanation or justification, especially when doing so results in preferences or assertions that are stupid: “I don’t care about animals at all because animals and humans are ontologically distinct.”
Why not just admit that you care about both, just differently, and do whatever seems best from there?
Perhaps just taking your apparent preferences at fact value like that you run into some kind of specific contradiction, or perhaps not. If you do, then you at least have a concrete muddle to resolve.
I think you are confused in thinking that humans are somehow not just also running a program that reacts to pain and whatnot.
You feel sympathy for animals, and more sympathy for humans. I don’t think that requires any special explanation or justification, especially when doing so results in preferences or assertions that are stupid: “I don’t care about animals at all because animals and humans are ontologically distinct.”
Why not just admit that you care about both, just differently, and do whatever seems best from there?
Perhaps just taking your apparent preferences at fact value like that you run into some kind of specific contradiction, or perhaps not. If you do, then you at least have a concrete muddle to resolve.