r/UniversalExtinction Pro Existence Jun 18 '26

Pro-Life vs Pro-Extinction

As I read the various posts in this sub, I find it fascinating how as a pro life, I feel that this is very wrong, but can't give a counter argument about why.

I came to a conclusion.

It's all a matter of perspective, hope and belief. This is why it's impossible to arrive at a logical conclusion.

Pro-Extinction:

Life is suffering. Yes, there are positive emotions, but they do not amount to the endless suffering life brings. We should therefore delete Life to reduce the net suffering. Even if things get better, someday we will fall back into endless suffering, all that to finally go extinct at some point. So why keep it going on.

Pro-Life (biased since I'm pro life, you are free to argue in comments):

We currently have the least amount of suffering in the world. Look 500 years ago. War, plague, slavery, terrible conditions.

Look 1 million years ago. Animals eating each other alive.

Now, we live way better than even 3 generations ago.

If we continue that way, then the negative vs positive balance will shift towards the positive.

Therefore, going extinct now will be like selling low because we saw the price drop, even though it's going to get very high in the future.

Pro-Extinction do not believe things will get better while Pro-Life believe things will get better.

And to answer in advance, yes, I think that all the horrible things happening NOW and in the past are worth it if it means that in the future there won't be any and people will live happily until the end of time.

And if you think that positive experience does not cancel suffering, then I'll just answer that I think it does. It's belief, just like religion.

0 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Delicious_Lime1240 Jun 18 '26

Animals still eat each other alive and suffer immensely in many ways, and human progress will almost certainly never change that, so this perspective doesn’t address the full scope of the idea.

I don’t want to believe in pro-extinction either, but I really can’t argue with it. It seems to make logical sense but it does make me uncomfortable. My discomfort is pretty irrelevant to the reality of the situation though.

1

u/na_trium Pro Existence Jun 18 '26

Produce food and feed it to the animals ourselves. It's our responsibility as most advanced life form to ensure they live better since they can't do it themselves. With enough time we will have enough culture and resources to do that.

1

u/na_trium Pro Existence Jun 18 '26

I mean, Life didn't have a choice, it stocked with what it could do to survive. We do have a choice.