I didn't fault the humans as much as you did for the genocide because they were clearly not recognizing (through their invincible ignorance) that the spiders were self-aware beings like themselves--they saw them more like dangerous vermin. I mean, that's uncomfortable too. But I kill ants in my house... I wish I could say I didn't, and if I could be like the spiders and find a way to redirect them, I'd much prefer that, but as it is, I do kill ants. So I guess I do make a distinction that way.

I know in history people have used language to equate their enemies with vermin to justify genocide. That makes me think two things: first, that people share a sense of wrongness about actual genocide and have to try to disguise it as something else, and second, that people didn't feel that way about wiping out things that didn't reach that standard. I'm glad we've broadened our sense of ... not sure what to call it: compassion/sense of fellow-creature-hood to a place where we also feel it's bad to wipe out other species, but I notice we haven't reached that point with things like the smallpox virus or the AIDS virus. I like the spiders' solution...

Tangentially, it made me uncomfortable when I thought the spiders were going to wipe out the ants, because even though the ants weren't individually aware, they had a kind of awareness en masse. But then the spiders didn't! So that was good/cool.