To start with, 99% (+) of all species present on the planet in its history are believed extinct. That doesn't mean there aren't occasional holdouts, like
Latimeria
which had been believed extinct for 70 million years, until someone pulled one up in a fishing net, but it does mean that for whatever reason, an overwhelming number of critters that used to be, no longer are, except for their preserved remains; remains which are not generally the soft tissues of that cultural or biological organism, but the 'hard parts' which are most easily preserved.
We see frequent reports of the excavation of entire social, economic, political systems ("civilizations") which have, too left their 'hard parts' remaining as a sort of cultural fossil, even though they are of our same species, and at times, are even defeated in our attempts to recognize and decipher their writings-at least the ones which survived the demise of the civilization, often carved in stone. (I am reminded of
A Canticle for Leibowitz, fiction to be sure, but a fine fictional example of the efforts to decipher surviving scraps and a future built around them.)
The assumption that humans are somehow immune to the existential roulette at which other, less intelligent or technological species have lost all, is based on our ability to think and therefore adapt, through the use of game-changing technologies to continue our existence, whether that adaptation be finding ways to keep the 'cave' warm, or to gather food more efficiently and even control the process of growing it.
Most of our adaptation has been centered, ultimately, around the basics: food, shelter from the elements, water (preferably uncontaminated by all the nasty things that can kill us, from naturally occurring poisons to our own biological waste), air to breathe (that also will not kill us), clothing that allows mobility, and enhanced means of getting around (primarily for the purpose of obtaining resources), and enough social interaction to facilitate all of the above.
We have developed means of altering (or through relocation, moving to more favorable) environments, which we have relied on for the production of the things we see as necessary (and some of which are existential needs), and thus consider ourselves (with a dash of Darwin) to be more advanced than other life forms.
Historically, when social groups are at an impasse over the allocation of resources, they try bargain for, and if that fails, to destroy each other to take over or defend those resources, but ultimately, it devolves to food, shelter, clothing, water, and survival.
With our ability to think (sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse), we have decided through our Anthropomorhphic religions that we, indeed are the Children of God, and, well, special.
We are special, and I believe that while we were created in God's image, if we fail to fall within certain parameters of behaviour, we invite not His Grace but can follow the path of the Fallen, (all documented in the various cultural manifestations of our deities).
The things generally defined as 'sin' certainly and predictably lead to cultural and social instability, reflected in the conduct of nations, and with rare enough exception, our whole species. In context, virtually all of the rules laid down in religions and social constructs we consider based on 'good' enable humans to survive and thrive in their environments, governing things which promote good health and harmony among those individuals which make up the community, tribe, nation, or even, the species.
In short, we are not immune to extinction (at least as cultural units, and perhaps as a species) any more than a species of Missippian Brachiopod that was incapable of dredging the channel to its section of dominated seafloor and too immobile to relocate to continue to survive.
We complicate the basics of survival with multiple layers of self-imposed complexity, considering ourselves far superior to our hunter-gatherer forebears, but all we have done is create a complex system of existence with an exponentially increased number of points of failure--points which, while seemingly insignificant, could have serious ramifications for our continued survival, or even end it.
The more complex these systems get, the more vulnerable they are, and therein is writ our fate. Add in the human element, and our survival might depend, ultimately, on the functioning of a relay, or something thwarted by spilled cup of coffee.
Movies like
Dr. Strangelove and
Fail Safe are attempts to indicate how small things (including human failings) can have sweeping consequences, but those classics are no longer considered relevant because we have machines to do the thinking. (AI already blames those failings, not on the malfunctioning of machines, but the humans using them, a seemingly minor but significant effect, even though we are talking about fiction.)
Even the idea of the machines achieving self-awareness and deciding that humans are the weak link (
Colossus: The Forbin Project,
Terminator-the whole franchise predicated on humans being
the threat to the machines, and a host of other fictional speculations)--and if the machines are to survive, humans must be eliminated, have been pooh-poohed as the speculative ravings of imaginative, if unrealistic minds. But even with warnings writ large (Fred Saberhagen's
Berserker series comes to mind, or the Borg of Star Trek), we assume ourselves immune to being hoist upon our own technological petards, with the exception of raising the temperature of a planet a couple of degrees C.
Yet we increasingly rely on those selfsame machines to do what passes for thinking in our modern world, limited only by thus far the abilities of the programmers and modelers to lay in the basic axioms that ultimately govern the outcome. GIGO remains relevant, and the more smug we are about how correct our input is, the more likely we are to get it wrong. The Dunning Krueger effect is on full display.
Are we doomed?
Oh, most certainly.
We have predicted it.
We have seen it.
It has been prophesied.
We have preached it.
Even our most patient and benevolent God has His limits (The Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and a number of documented other events).
If not a simple physical and natural event, as routine as the collision of celestial bodies, or some competition for the planet by a species we consider 'lesser' and beyond our serious consideration (H.G. Wells' planet saving germ), then by our own hand.
We will all die someday. The quintessential human struggle is to make sure that day is not today, and that we don't all die at the same time.
Stay calm. We can always panic later. (Well,
maybe).
