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Comment by endisneigh | Hacker News Reader

What do people think the last thing on this would be (for human condition, but not for Earth)?

Human-caused climate change creates feedback loops leading to mass extinction events, eventually making the planet unsuitable for complex life.

I think humans would evolve in a variety of ways to transcend humanity.

That’s awfully optimistic. Humans evolved out of nature and into culture— and culture is only a millisecond old on the evolutionary timeline. All evidence points against a Star Trek future and instead a future of perpetual dismal decline. As climate change shows, humans may be clever as individuals but they can’t even compare to ants as an intelligent collective species

That's awfully inaccurate. Some part of human culture has increased quality of life. If you think the opposite, I will provide a list of places and lifestyles that are free of said cultural bits for you to go and experience.

With that said, no, progress is not a given, and we have one million and one ways to shoot ourselves in the feet. Both climate change and getting depressed and suicidal about climate change count, though the later is worse, because it affects our collective self-esteem and our capacity to work for a better future.

Never did I say anything about culture and quality of life. Don’t make an argument from a false claim. I said nature is highly evolved, but human culture is young and untested, with little evidence for optimism, climate talks one example

Maybe the memetics of human infrastructure permeate future generations of the cockroach enlightenment??

Replacement by AI or aliens

Aliens wouldn't be interested in an already populated, resource depleted, polluted planet. Better choices available for those who can traverse space.

It is silly to have any degree of confidence in what advanced aliens would want.

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