> The thing we want to emphasize is that right now there are some mechanisms that steer our civilization towards keeping us alive, and free in some senses, that might stop operating.

I agree with this formulation. What I am emphasizing is that, insofar as mechanisms are steering, the system in which they are operating can be said to have largely decoupled from the human mind.

"Alive and free in some senses."

A society whose tagline is "alive and free in some senses" is already dystopian! Far scarier, to me, than its extinction or my own early death.