Parasitic wasps may be the most diverse group of animals (beating out beetles). In some areas environments, a shocking fraction of prey insects are parasitized.
If you value ‘life’ you should probably keep humans around so we can spread life beyond earth. The expected amount of life in the Galaxy seems much higher if humans stick around. Imo the other logical position is ‘blow up the sun’. Don’t just take out the humans, take out the wasps too. The earth is full of really horrible suffering and if the humans die out then wasp parasitism will probably go on for hundreds of millions of additional years.
Of course, humans literally spread parasitic wasps as a form of ‘natural’ pest control so maybe the life spread by humans will be unusually terrible? I suppose ‘life on earth is net-good, but life specifically spread by humans will be net bad’. It is worth noting humans might create huge amounts of digital life. RobinHanson’s ‘Age of Em’ makes me wonder about their quality of life.
Just killing all humans but leaving the rest of the biosphere intact seems like it’s ‘threading the needle’. Maybe you can clarify more what you are valuing specifically.
Of course, don’t do anything crazy. Give the absurdity heuristic a little respect.
Parasitic wasps may be the most diverse group of animals (beating out beetles). In some areas environments, a shocking fraction of prey insects are parasitized.
If you value ‘life’ you should probably keep humans around so we can spread life beyond earth. The expected amount of life in the Galaxy seems much higher if humans stick around. Imo the other logical position is ‘blow up the sun’. Don’t just take out the humans, take out the wasps too. The earth is full of really horrible suffering and if the humans die out then wasp parasitism will probably go on for hundreds of millions of additional years.
Of course, humans literally spread parasitic wasps as a form of ‘natural’ pest control so maybe the life spread by humans will be unusually terrible? I suppose ‘life on earth is net-good, but life specifically spread by humans will be net bad’. It is worth noting humans might create huge amounts of digital life. RobinHanson’s ‘Age of Em’ makes me wonder about their quality of life.
Just killing all humans but leaving the rest of the biosphere intact seems like it’s ‘threading the needle’. Maybe you can clarify more what you are valuing specifically.
Of course, don’t do anything crazy. Give the absurdity heuristic a little respect.