5. A false equivocation of global
catastrophe with the death of all individual humans
It
is possible to imagine scenarios in which humanity survives in a literal sense
but in a deeper sense, civilization comes to an end. This includes superdrug scenarios, where humanity becomes addicted to
virtual reality and gradually becomes obsolete, replaced by machines that
eventually turn us into detached brains or even human-like computer programs
that lack phenomenological consciousness. So, we should
note that a global catastrophe need not involve the
sudden death or all individual humans; there are more subtle ways our story
might come to an end.