Posthuman Blues

How likely is human extinction?

"Every species seems to come and go. Some last longer than others, but nothing lasts forever. Humans are a relatively recent phenomenon, jumping out of trees and striding across the land around 200 000 years ago. Will we persist for many millions of years to come, or are we headed for an evolutionary makeover, or even extinction?"

Attempting to predict the end of humankind might be an interesting rhetorical exercise, but biologists who seriously posit long-term human extinction need to realize that posthumanity will not be confined by the deadly arithmetic of telomeres -- or even the caprices of Earth's biosphere.

Extinction? Bring it on; it doesn't matter. We'll have long since become Something Else -- or, more likely than not, a great many Something Elses.

Or maybe I'm just investing too much faith in Bruce Sterling's "Schismatrix."