Forgive me if what I’m about to suggest is implicit elsewhere, but let’s look at what I see as a key premise: humans “being” is a good thing. It’s easy to go from there to look instead why humans being may not be a good thing, but why not go the other direction? What if there is A) the being of something else, another form of life/consciousness/whatever, that is a “better being” than “humans being,” and 2) the existence of humans is somehow prejudicial or detrimental to the existence and prosperity of that “better being?” This may be something already in existence or expected to be in existence, but with that premise, couldn’t you argue that human extinction would itself be a good by perpetuating a better “being?”
More succinctly put, what if getting humans out of the way gives rise to something better than humans? This can easily devolve into claims of racial superiority within humanity and other assorted BS, but I’m thinking of homo sapiens versus something different (maybe call them neo sapiens, borrowing from what I recall was a mediocre cartoon called Exosquad), either another step on the evolutionary ladder, Skynet, etc.).
Forgive me if what I’m about to suggest is implicit elsewhere, but let’s look at what I see as a key premise: humans “being” is a good thing. It’s easy to go from there to look instead why humans being may not be a good thing, but why not go the other direction? What if there is A) the being of something else, another form of life/consciousness/whatever, that is a “better being” than “humans being,” and 2) the existence of humans is somehow prejudicial or detrimental to the existence and prosperity of that “better being?” This may be something already in existence or expected to be in existence, but with that premise, couldn’t you argue that human extinction would itself be a good by perpetuating a better “being?”
More succinctly put, what if getting humans out of the way gives rise to something better than humans? This can easily devolve into claims of racial superiority within humanity and other assorted BS, but I’m thinking of homo sapiens versus something different (maybe call them neo sapiens, borrowing from what I recall was a mediocre cartoon called Exosquad), either another step on the evolutionary ladder, Skynet, etc.).
That’s a really good point, it’s similar to but distinct from the argument from Deep Ecology. I may add it to the article.
Cool. Happy to expound, if useful.