735
All such theories are compounded by projections: the impression, for example,
that among 114 nations analyzed, it was the density of their human populations that
correlated with “the number of endangered birds and mammals…”.
39
In an elaborate essay on “existential risks,” Dr. Nick Bostrom of Yale University’s Department
of Philosophy has detailed the many “threats that could cause our extinction,” with
case-by-case implications for “ethical and policy implications.” “Directed evolution” (forms of transhumanism) is one of the assessed strategies within the larger
categories Bostrom names: “Bangs,” “Crunches,” “Shrieks,” and “Whimpers”.
40
More recently, Patricia MacCormack’s The Ahuman Manifesto – Activism for
the End of the Anthropocene has been described as “…a delightful provocation and
invitation to imagine a world without humans and to think of what we can do to get
there. It is an urgent call for action”.
41
While a Stephen Hawking was in favor of
our species leaving earth to colonize other planets, many have discussed issues of
survivor and cognitive biases that inevitably weigh in favor of our species’ long-term
survival,
42
or of the whole issue of technology again coming to our rescue.
43
In favoring the present survivors, our species’ perceptions of risk are much like those caveats
imposed by various associations of insurance commissioners whose fidelity tends to
align with insurers and agents of corporate conglomerates, not the consumer.
44
In each of these instances, numerous psychological scenarios emerge: various
game theories, cybernetics, and cliodynamics (a multidisciplinary mode of mathematically modeling historical data), Kondratiev waves (multi-decade cycles of economic growth), Great Divergence and Convergence mechanics in both economics
and physics, as developed in the work of Leonid Grinin and Andrey Korotayev,
45
39 J.K. McKee, P.W. Sciulli, C.D. Fooce, and T. A. Waite, “Forecasting Biodiversity Threats Due to
Human Population Growth,” Biological Conservation 115(1): 161–164, Cited in “Human
Population Growth And Extinction,” n.a., Center for Biological Diversity, biologicaldiversity.org
40 “Existential Risks – Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards,” Journal or
Evolution and Technology, Vol. 9, 2002, http://jetpress.org/volume8/symbionics.html; and existential-risk.org.
41 Christine Daigle, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Posthumanism Research Institute,
Brock University, Canada, from the website comments on the book, Bloomsbury Publishing,
https://www.amazon.com/Ahuman-Manifesto-Activism-End-Anthropocene-ebook/dp/
B081PHNGDH
42 See, for example, “We’re Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction, by Ross Andersen,
The Atlantic, March 6, 2012; and Eliezer Yudlowsky’s “Cognitive biases potentially affecting
judgment of global risks,” Global catastrophic risks 1, 2008: 86, p. 114.
43 See, for example, “EmTech: Get Ready for a New Human Species, by Emily Singer, MIT
Technology Review, October 19, 2011.
44 See, for example, “Can you rely on the annuity advice?” by Ethan Schwartz, The Los Angeles
Times, March 8, 2020, http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=3fd1d8f7cf68-4ace-8428-4a6d2d399f67); or the much disguised motives employed by human supremacists
who combated the organization ZPG (Zero Population Growth, the organization founded in 1968,
changing its name in 2002 to Population Connection) on grounds that it was thought (wrongly) to
endorse such draconian population control methods as forced sterilization and eugenics.
45 See Great Divergence and Convergence – A Global Perspective, Leonid Grinin and Andrey
V. Korotayev, Springer Publishers, New York, 2015.
80.5 Real People, Fictional Populations, and a Semblance of Hope
All such theories are compounded by projections: the impression, for example,
that among 114 nations analyzed, it was the density of their human populations that
correlated with “the number of endangered birds and mammals…”.
39
In an elaborate essay on “existential risks,” Dr. Nick Bostrom of Yale University’s Department
of Philosophy has detailed the many “threats that could cause our extinction,” with
case-by-case implications for “ethical and policy implications.” “Directed evolution” (forms of transhumanism) is one of the assessed strategies within the larger
categories Bostrom names: “Bangs,” “Crunches,” “Shrieks,” and “Whimpers”.
40
More recently, Patricia MacCormack’s The Ahuman Manifesto – Activism for
the End of the Anthropocene has been described as “…a delightful provocation and
invitation to imagine a world without humans and to think of what we can do to get
there. It is an urgent call for action”.
41
While a Stephen Hawking was in favor of
our species leaving earth to colonize other planets, many have discussed issues of
survivor and cognitive biases that inevitably weigh in favor of our species’ long-term
survival,
42
or of the whole issue of technology again coming to our rescue.
43
In favoring the present survivors, our species’ perceptions of risk are much like those caveats
imposed by various associations of insurance commissioners whose fidelity tends to
align with insurers and agents of corporate conglomerates, not the consumer.
44
In each of these instances, numerous psychological scenarios emerge: various
game theories, cybernetics, and cliodynamics (a multidisciplinary mode of mathematically modeling historical data), Kondratiev waves (multi-decade cycles of economic growth), Great Divergence and Convergence mechanics in both economics
and physics, as developed in the work of Leonid Grinin and Andrey Korotayev,
45
39 J.K. McKee, P.W. Sciulli, C.D. Fooce, and T. A. Waite, “Forecasting Biodiversity Threats Due to
Human Population Growth,” Biological Conservation 115(1): 161–164, Cited in “Human
Population Growth And Extinction,” n.a., Center for Biological Diversity, biologicaldiversity.org
40 “Existential Risks – Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards,” Journal or
Evolution and Technology, Vol. 9, 2002, http://jetpress.org/volume8/symbionics.html; and existential-risk.org.
41 Christine Daigle, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Posthumanism Research Institute,
Brock University, Canada, from the website comments on the book, Bloomsbury Publishing,
https://www.amazon.com/Ahuman-Manifesto-Activism-End-Anthropocene-ebook/dp/
B081PHNGDH
42 See, for example, “We’re Underestimating the Risk of Human Extinction, by Ross Andersen,
The Atlantic, March 6, 2012; and Eliezer Yudlowsky’s “Cognitive biases potentially affecting
judgment of global risks,” Global catastrophic risks 1, 2008: 86, p. 114.
43 See, for example, “EmTech: Get Ready for a New Human Species, by Emily Singer, MIT
Technology Review, October 19, 2011.
44 See, for example, “Can you rely on the annuity advice?” by Ethan Schwartz, The Los Angeles
Times, March 8, 2020, http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=3fd1d8f7cf68-4ace-8428-4a6d2d399f67); or the much disguised motives employed by human supremacists
who combated the organization ZPG (Zero Population Growth, the organization founded in 1968,
changing its name in 2002 to Population Connection) on grounds that it was thought (wrongly) to
endorse such draconian population control methods as forced sterilization and eugenics.
45 See Great Divergence and Convergence – A Global Perspective, Leonid Grinin and Andrey
V. Korotayev, Springer Publishers, New York, 2015.
80.5 Real People, Fictional Populations, and a Semblance of Hope