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.