Let’s turn, then, and take the question from the other side, the side of those who think that human extinction would be both a tragedy and overall a bad thing. Don’t they justify the continued existence of our species, even granting the suffering we bring to so many nonhuman lives? How many human lives would it be worth sacrificing to preserve the existence of Shakespeare’s works? One human life would be too many (or, to prevent quibbling, one innocent human life), at least to my mind. It may well be, then, that the extinction of humanity would make the world better off and yet would be a tragedy.

Source: New York Times December 17, 2018 11:00 UTC