Yeah I mean as long as there's historical continuity between our civilization and these hypothetical future human-like things, I'm totally on board. Not committed to humans as they are in 2014 sticking around forever. I think any disagreement between these views rests mainly on what we mean when we say extinction event. I would insist, however, that the notion of human consciousness being a phenomenon worth preserving as long as possible isn't some 'New Age fantasy', come on now.
> I would insist, however, that the notion of human consciousness being a phenomenon worth preserving as long as possible isn't some 'New Age fantasy', come on now.
But it is a New Age fantasy. A million years from now, no matter what course natural selection takes, any surviving species will almost certainly be so unlike us that we would not recognize them as even remotely kindred spirits.
I chose a million years to avoid a discussion about how long it might take for natural selection to naturally eliminate us entirely. In that future time, there might be super-intelligent species who would be repelled by what we regard as high intellect, or there might be simple-minded cockroaches. Or (who knows) there might be cockroaches who would be repelled by what we regard as high intellect. :)
There's a natural tendency to think of us as a permanent or special fixture of the earthly landscape. But that has no basis in reality -- we're a transient form with no special significance. To me, our relative insignificance makes who we are, and what we can do, worthy of reflection and a certain amount of gratitude toward the random workings of nature for creating us in the first place.
