I would agree. Still, some of the other commenters have pointed out that alien civilizations can have interesting consequences for the Anti-natalist, Negative Utilitarian, and S-Risk arguments.
Great points. If you assume a negative utilitarian worldview, you can make strong arguments both for and against human extinction.
Thanks for these resources!
What's a Tomasikian suffering empathy exercise? I'm not familiar with that term.
Good point, some of these arguments do contradict one another. I suppose if human extinction really were a good thing, it would be because of one or a few of these arguments, not all of them.
Excellent point. Playing devil's advocate, one might be skeptical that humanity is good enough to perform these "cosmic rescue missions", either out of cruelty/indifference or simply because we will never be advanced enough. Still, it's a good concept to keep in mind.
Interesting, I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the clarification.