See this is where we disagree. I would instead have said "We're so good that we have completely transcended biological evolution."
I mean, don't get me wrong -- I am an animal lover and a naturalist and I have great respect for everything mother nature has created. But what I respect most of all is the ability self-conscious entities have to "bootstrap" themselves -- something that so far only humans have been able to do. Assuming we don't cause our own extinction, we are on track to be the first life form from our planet that can ensure its own species survival indefinitely, and everything else that evolution has produced simply pales in comparison to that.
At least, in my opinion!
I'd tend to agree. Of course I'm a pretty dedicated transhumanist, so you don't really have to work hard to sell me that - I'm pretty well sold.
Of course the first step, IMHO, is to recognize all the weaknesses we now have, and that we've passed the point where we have to sit around waiting for a reasonably slow, reasonably hard to control process, and start changing those things that are poor directly.
If 'indefinite survival' is based upon more than wishful thinking, please do explain why that is your opinion
Nonsense. Human beings have grown in number, populated every continent, and have no remaining natural predators that are any threat to us at all. There are no lifeforms that better fulfill our niche - we have created our own niche, and it is suited to us - and only us. Our genetic structure is sufficiently diverse and our populations is both large and geographically dispersed, so a single disease is unlikely to threaten our survival.
That removes all common causes of extinction. In fact, we are so far beyond the boundries of extinction that even before the discovery of crude oil as a fuel source, we could not be eliminated by those causes. If we were ever reduced to 17th century technology, we'd STILL be unable to become extinct.
Now we're down to uncommon causes:
Nuclear War - I doubt it would wipe everyone out. 5.5 Billion? Possibly. Maybe more. We'd recover in a few thousand years.
Asteroid Strike - highly unlikely. Also, we're developing technology to monitor and intercept them.
Doomsday plague - Once again, many populations have been nailed by extraordinarily nasty plagues. Genetic and geographical diversity has always, historically, been enough to ensure the species survival. If we're talking a gengineered doomsday plague, then, well, err... hollywood much?
Sun's core fills with iron, expands into a red giant - okay, this one is a problem. We can't really do much about it, with our current technology, nor can we really avoid it. Four billion years down the line, this is going to become an issue.
Heat Death of the Universe - Yup, this one looks pretty sure. I doubt we're getting out of that.
If you have a claim that something can cause our extinction, I'd say it's time for you to sit down and provide it. Because we've eliminated our expanded past any and all natural causes of extinction in the evolutionary process. Short the sun going red giant (and the heat death) there is little that threatens our species.
