The Survivability of Intelligent Life on Earth: Some Basic Contrasting Approaches
Abstract
If you survey the contemporary global scene and its human society, there are a number of major issues in process that raise questions about the survivability of that human in society as an intelligent social species into the longer term future. It is possible to debate the nature of those questions and the degree of threats they pose to humanity, but these are matters requiring some considerable expertise. It is not necessary in this article to discuss the threats in any detail. Sufficient to note the concerns that are sometimes now expressed about such matters of observable concern, for example, as the existence of various violent, terrible conflicts in the world, the breakdowns in global order and the many deep divisions and prejudices amongst humanity, the potential for the use of weapons of mass destruction[1] and the increased reliance on and build up of offensive weapons, concerns about gross human rights abuses and genocide, concerns about global environmental degradation and climate change[2] and concerns about artificial intelligence and the manipulation and abuse of electronic mediums. There may well be other such concerns. The relevant point here is that concerns are sometimes being seriously expressed about whether they point to questions about the long term survivability of the human species as intelligent beings in the light of contemporary directions. Some prominent commentators who have even considered such a topic may, for obvious reasons, be reluctant to predict the non survivability of humanity, at least without making suggestions as to how this could be corrected or averted. But a potential existential threat is sometimes expressed by some prominent in various fields. That threat may be actively being examined in some quarters. Sometimes the view is expressed as a question as to the survivability of all life on earth including humanity[3]. These views deserve consideration. A selection of relevant quotes follows:
[1] Albert Einstein is famously credited with saying, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." This may have been a paraphrase of Einstein’s well known views on the subject.
[2] The dangers from climate change are believed by some to constitute a threat to the survivability of the human race in that climactic conditions could become such as to create non livable conditions. It has even been suggested that the ongoing mass extinction of other living things is itself a threat to the persistence of civilization because it is now irreversible.
[3] “The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on Earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the Earth.”- (from David Attenborough’s documentary series, Life On Earth).
References
Albert Einstein is famously credited with saying, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." This may have been a paraphrase of Einstein’s well known views on the subject.
The dangers from climate change are believed by some to constitute a threat to the survivability of the human race in that climactic conditions could become such as to create non livable conditions. It has even been suggested that the ongoing mass extinction of other living things is itself a threat to the persistence of civilization because it is now irreversible.
“The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on Earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the Earth.”- (from David Attenborough’s documentary series, Life On Earth).
First stated in an interview with Larry King in 2010.
The Economic Times, English Edition, 20 April 2026. David Goss is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. He shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics.
From Brainy Quote.
Stated by Gates in NBC's Meet the Press. Prof Geoffrey Hinton, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his work in AI, also said there was a “10% to 20%” risk of leading to human extinction within the next three decades -
Dr. King shared this powerful message during multiple addresses in the 1960s,
A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future, (Witness Books, 2020). In it, Attenborough states that the present use of the planet by humanity is not sustainable and will lead to catastrophe unless this is reversed. He calls for a reversal of the present transition (at 125).
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006). Carl Sagan also argued that nuclear war would be a catastrophe.
It is possible that if there has been intelligent life elsewhere in the universe in the past that it also could have become extinct by some later cause. It can be argued that the possibility of extinction could therefore also exists for human beings in the future in the right circumstances.
The discussion of some form of Divinely caused apocalypse and matters of eschatology are matters for other commentators, not this article. There is a vast literature, mainly from some religious sources, suggesting that humanity collectively faces a doomsday conclusion of some kind, with only the elect surviving. The writer tends to take a much more optimistic view of future human survivability in some form whilst recognising that there are real threats to human wellbeing and survival. The writer disclaims any unique knowledge of his own in such matters and relies primarily on his Baha’i beliefs.
See for example the Lord’s prayer – “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven….”
For example, Isaiah 2:2.
See discussion below. For a discussion of this subject see Stephen Lambden, “Catastrophe, Armageddon and Millennium: Some aspects of the Bahai-Baha’i exegesis of apocalyptic symbolism”, Baha’i Studies Review.
Kathryn Achulz, “Writers in the Storm” in The Fragile Earth, D Remnick and H Finder (Eds), William Collins, (2021) at124.
This is not to say that there will be no catastrophic events in the future in which many humans may be killed or injured. The present trend of world events indicate that this is already occurring in many places.
Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, 303. That is not to say that animals may have their own abilities, some even superior to humans in some respects.
These may be an aspect of human intelligence.
Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness.
Article 6.
This includes a right to live in peace. “the duty of States to respect the fundamental human right to life also covers their duty to preserve the right of peoples to live in peace since mass violence and killings caused by war may be considered as an arbitrary loss of life.” (Oxford Public International law,
The author of this article has elsewhere expressed a view on the effectiveness of human rights guarantees in “Remedying The Retreat in the Protection of Citizens’ International Human Rights”, 9(3) International Journal of Peace and Development Studies, p 31, July 2018.
For example, Albert Schweitzer stated:
“Because I have confidence in the powers of truth, and of the spirit, I have confidence in the future of mankind”.
The World Commission on Environment and Development, in its Report ‘Our Common Future’ (OUP, 1987) expressed the belief that people can build a future that is more prosperous, more just and more secure, but issued a call for cooperative global action to this end.
For example, the Old Testament in the Book of Genesis refers to the sign of the rainbow as a Divine promise not to again destroy all flesh on earth.
Again in the Book of Micah, also the Book of Isaiah, it is stated quite clearly that in the future, wars on earth shall end and peace and disarmament shall occur.
At the same time, the New Testament refers to a great tribulation before the elect are saved and the return of the Divine Manifestation occurs – Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 24.
The Founder/Prophet of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah, clearly contemplates that those members of humanity who survive any coming tests will eventually go on to produce a united, just and spiritual civilization on earth as part of a new global order.
These are not documented in this article.
Writing of this recent change in global circumstances, the Universal House of Justice refers to some less commonly noted circumstances that may have contributed to a more recent decline in attitudes, in that it stated:
“As the present century opened, new challenges began to loom. With time, these intensified, leading to a retreat from the promising steps forward with which the previous century had closed. Today, many of the dominant currents in societies everywhere are pushing people apart, not drawing them together. Even as global poverty of the most extreme form has decreased, political and economic systems have enabled the enrichment of small coteries with grossly exorbitant wealth – a condition that fuels fundamental instability in world affairs. The interactions of the individual citizen, governing institutions, and society as a whole are often fraught, as those arguing for the primacy of one or the other show more and more intransigence in their thinking. Religious fundamentalism is warping the character of communities, even nations. The failings of so many organizations and institutions of society have understandably led to a decline in public trust, but this has been systematically exploited by vested interests seeking to undermine the credibility of all sources of knowledge. Certain shared ethical principles, which seemed to be in ascendant at the start of the century, are eroded, threatening the prevailing consensus about right and wrong that, in various arenas, have succeeded in holding humanity’s basest tendencies in check. And the will to engage in collective action, which twenty years ago represented a powerful strain of thinking among world leaders, has been cowed, assailed by resurgent forces of racism, nationalism and factionalism.” – Statement of the Universal House of Justice, 18 January 2019, on the centenary of the Paris Peace Conference.
Thus Ervin Lazlo stated:
“A new civilization is not likely to come about in time if we sit with folded hands, waiting for the converging holism of the new cultures and the new sciences to lay the groundwork for it. A critical mass of people in society must take an active role. That means you and me, and others around us.
There are decisive things you and I can do to promote the shift toward a peaceful and sustainable civilization.”
The examples are too numerous to mention.
This included their right to develop and acquire their own arms and to wage wars.
As indicated by the threats already mentioned. Arguably sometimes human affairs need to deteriorate, even to a very low level, before they can begin to rise up and improve again.
But this movement towards global unity should not be mistaken for a movement ending in some kind of a utopia – any human society will always have its own trials and challenges given that humans are fallible by nature and that human development towards perfection is endless.
Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 202.
Although not necessarily so if the right choices are made. The alternative of a cooperative global approach among all nations remains a possibility.
As Horace Holley stated “Unity is the condition of human survival.” (Baha’i World, Volume 10 at 649), and that “cooperation and unity [are] imperative to the very existence of mankind “ (Baha’i World, Volume 4 at 351).
Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 126.
1817-1892.
Baha'u'llah, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. ix.
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