human extinction "soon" pretty likely?

[fflo]

Having heard a couple of recent casual references to when humans are no longer here, tossed out like we all now assume that's coming soon, I went to read about it, starting with the risk estimates given within the wikipedia article Human Extinction.  Sure seems there like we're going to do ourselves in, vs. Nature getting us, y'know, directly.  I'm wondering now:  if we come to accept more broadly that we'll all be one within a handful of generations, will we start putting effort into leaving evidence of us behind more intentionally?  Or be like "Fuck it"?

A surprise and kinda funny part of that wikipedia page is the part about how bad a thing it would or wouldn't (will or won't) be if/when we're all gone.  Clearly there's no human moral assessment of the loss after all the humans are gone, though, so what we might have felt about its relative badness becomes wholly moot, no?

I also wonder whether internalizing our likely not-far-off collective doom could help me with embracing my own.  It might be less involved that a trip to Oregon or Colorado.  And cheaper.

If I sound all dark and down with this pondering, I'm giving the wrong impression.  It's a kind of light-hearted consideration, today, popping up in the middle of my workday.

Comments

[springheel_jack]

I don’t buy the extinction theory at all.