#843 Émile Torres - Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation (Part 1)
RECORDED ON AUGUST 28th 2023.
Dr. Émile Torres is a researcher at Leibniz Universität Hannover, in Germany. Their work over the past decade has centered around a single theme: eschatology, whether religious, secular, or scientific. Recently, their work has been focused on the nature and causes of human extinction, its ethical implications, and the history of the idea. They are the author of Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing: An Introduction to Existential Risks, and their latest book is Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation.
This is our second interview. You can watch the first one, on the philosophy of effective altruism and longtermism, here: https://youtu.be/ES-fPqMXXng
In this episode, we focus on Human Extinction. We start by discussing how old the idea of human extinction is in Western history. We then talk about five existential moods across history, and get into anthropogenic extinction, natural causes of extinction, and the existential mood of our current moment. We discuss what people might mean by “human” and “extinction”. Finally, we talk about ideas in favor of human extinction.
Time Links:
Intro
How old is the idea of human extinction in Western history?
The 5 existential moods across history
Anthropogenic extinction
Natural causes of extinction
The existential mood of our current moment
What does “human” mean? And what about “extinction”?
Ideas in favor of human extinction
Follow Dr. Torres’ work!
Follow Dr. Torres’ work:
University page: https://bit.ly/3BUcz8j
Website: https://bit.ly/3qbrU1S
Human Extinction: https://bit.ly/3OGrXgi
Twitter handle: @xriskology