> Despite the Drake equation which indicates the cosmos is teeming with life-- and with
> intelligent life to boot-- as far as we know *for sure* so far Homo sapiens is the
> Cosmos' best means of seeing, thinking, and being aware of itself.

That, of course, is EGOCENTRISM at its best!

Everything else, of course, like for example, the stability of the atom and the day and year cycles just happened totally by accident given enough time and chance!!!

> (A couple of quotes come to mind here regarding this line of thought, one by Carl Sagan
> and the other by Mother Teresa, but I don't have either immediately available).
> What I'm suggesting is-- however much we may hate ourselves or how hopeless it may
> all seem-- we have a duty to something greater than ourselves not to suicide or
> to let ourselves be extinguished.

IMHO, suicide as an escape to an "hopeless mind" still maintains that specific mental state and it doesn't help the being/entity who is doing it to transform it! Using straight and forward logic there are only two major possibilities for the subject doing it: (1) there is nothing else after, so it is the end or (2) there is something after and the subject is BEGINNING that new cycle with a hopeless mind, which was the specific mental state at transition. Remember that there is ONLY REAL TIME...the here and now...so the energy mental state at transition would be maintained!

In terms of letting ourselves be extinguished, human beings, of course, do not control nature and its forces, so nothing under that EGOCENTRIC mind set would be able to provide a solution for that riddle!!!

> Getting off planet as soon as possible is our best means for seeing to it our genes
> AND our technology continue.

That is an amazing statement! Like human beings have the know how to sustain life outside the planet Earth!!!

Either case, even if we had it, we probably couldn't afford it using debt based fiat money!!!

eom