Sixth mass extinction is essential for human evolution

You must have read flashing news in various media about the earth entering sixth mass extinction. Here is one such article, there are many more if you search online.

http://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-we-re-on-the-brink-of-earth-s-sixth-mass-extinction

For some reason, all the articles are trying to evoke sadness and pessimism, but is it necessary to look at it that way or that way only?

Stephen Hawking has cautioned us: humans won't survive if we don't learn to independently live outside the earth within next 1,000 years (Because he feels the earth is too fragile and anything can happen anytime). This target is not that far away and our science has to grow leaps and bounds to reach there. So, focusing on such agenda is much more important than trying to preserve all the species on earth.

We need space for more humans

If we look at how the science has advanced, there is an interesting link to population growth. When the entire knowledge base was small, individuals could come up with ground breaking concepts, theories and products. But today the knowledge base is so vast that it takes bigger teams to digest relevant information and then collectively come up with new stuff. In other words, huge knowledge base has potential to accelerate science at unprecedented speeds, but at the same time we need more and more brilliant people to form elite teams and achieve the same. Of course, further developments in artificial intelligence might reduce the burden on human beings, but as of today we need more humans. Higher the human population is, higher will be the absolute number of brilliant people and that’s why we need more humans around us. And more humans need more resources, land etc. It’s sad that we have to snatch it away from other species, but when it comes to our own survival, it seems fair, isn’t it?

What is the need of other species?

Moreover, most non-human species don’t seem to serve any purpose, they don’t even have intelligence to define their own. So, it’s not a big deal if they vanish. However we need some species to selectively survive (animals such as cows, pigs; birds such as chicken, turkeys, some varieties of fish and plants) for our survival (as of now), and to fulfil other needs (pets such as cats, dogs; monkeys & rats for lab experiments). Once science advances further, maybe we can live without them also and fulfil our physical, emotional and intellectual needs through other means. For e.g. Lab grown meat is already looking promising and it has potential to replace the inefficient livestock. Testing on animals is slowly becoming outdated science as alternatives are picking up.

Some of the species can be preserved for longer duration in zoos or in other ways. In the coming days, it might suffice to just preserve their DNAs, and recreate them whenever we need them, for education, entertainment, experiments or any other purpose.

Once upon a time, villagers used to be so scared about tigers etc., and today vast majority of people are living peacefully without such fears. Isn't it progress? All the previous mass extinctions were totally unplanned, and they were due to fury of nature, but this time it’s different. The current mass extinction is intelligently orchestrated by strong & intelligent human beings, and since we are doing it so methodically, we are going to rule the earth like never before, and eventually gain the ability to live outside this fragile planet also. Other species have lost in the race of evolution and it’s not our fault that they couldn’t put up a good fight, period – survival of the fittest it is. It is time to stop thinking about species that failed to evolve like we did, and it is time to prepare ourselves to take a leap further into space. Hope you understand and appreciate this evolution and get ready to embrace the brave new world that is being shaped with great care & precision.

Note: Those who know me, must be feeling shocked that I wrote this. Just to clarify – this is actually an attempt to emulate (with subtle sarcasm) numerous half baked, ignorant, simplistic theories that circulate among millions all the time. I can very well understand and appreciate the undying human desire to innovate and evolve beyond all barriers, however I firmly believe that we are not being very smart at the moment, plus I don’t think we can truly achieve peace and equality among humans if we are insensitive towards other species, it’s all very much interlinked.