Ken Olum、ジョシュア・ノブ、アレキサンダー・ビレンキンらは、絶滅リスクは健康リスクなどと違い個人でどうにもし難いものだが、それでもそれを考えるのには実用的価値があると主張している。例えば、もし「世界終末論（Doomsday argument）」が広く世界に受け入れられたならば、その終末リスクを低減しようという大きな動機となるはずであるという。彼らは「特定の天体一つ一つに関心を傾ける以上に、まだ発見されていない大部分の天体に目を向けるべきだ。近くの星のどれかが超新星になる危険性をわざわざ恐れることはないが、我々が思っている以上に超新星が周辺の生命に致命的影響を与えるものであることは憂慮しておくべきだ。」と述べている[40]。
人類の絶滅の回避を目指して活動している組織は少なくない。人類未来研究所（Future of Humanity Institute、FHI）や存続リスク研究センター（Centre for the Study of Existential Risk、CSER）、生命未来研究所（Future of Life Institute）、人工知能研究機関（Machine Intelligence Research Institute）、世界破滅リスク研究所（Global Catastrophic Risk Institute ）などが挙げられる。
^ For research on this, see Psychological science volume 15 (2004): Decisions From Experience and the Effect of Rare Events in Risky Choice. The under-perception of rare events mentioned above is actually the opposite of the phenomenon originally described by Kahneman in "prospect theory" (in their original experiments the likelihood of rare events is overestimated). However, further analysis of the bias has shown that both forms occur: When judging from description people tend to overestimate the described probability, so this effect taken alone would indicate that reading the extinction scenarios described here should make the reader overestimate the likelihood of any probabilities given. However, the effect that is more relevant to common consideration of human extinction is the bias that occurs with estimates from experience, and these are in the opposite direction: When judging from personal experience people who have never heard of or experienced their species become extinct would be expected to dramatically underestimate its likelihood. SociobiologistE. O. Wilson argued that: "The reason for this myopic fog, evolutionary biologists contend, is that it was actually advantageous during all but the last few millennia of the two million years of existence of the genus Homo... A premium was placed on close attention to the near future and early reproduction, and little else. Disasters of a magnitude that occur only once every few centuries were forgotten or transmuted into myth." (Is Humanity Suicidal? The New York Times Magazine 30 May 1993).
^ Leslie (1996) discusses the survivorship bias (which he calls an "observational selection" effect on page 139) he says that the a priori certainty of observing an "undisasterous past" could make it difficult to argue that we must be safe because nothing terrible has yet occurred. He quotes Holger Bech Nielsen's formulation: "We do not even know if there should exist some extremely dangerous decay of say the proton which caused eradication of the earth, because if it happens we would no longer be there to observe it and if it does not happen there is nothing to observe." (From: Random dynamics and relations between the number of fermion generations and the fine structure constants, Acta Pysica Polonica B, May 1989).
^ For the "West Germany" extrapolation see: Leslie, 1996 (The End of the World) in the "War, Pollution, and disease" chapter (page 74). In this section the author also mentions the success (in lowering the birth rate) of programs such as the sterilization-for-rupees programs in India, and surveys other infertility or falling birth-rate extinction scenarios. He says that the voluntary small family behaviour may be counter-evolutionary, but that the meme for small, rich families appears to be spreading rapidly throughout the world. In 2150 the world population is expected to start falling.
^ Former NASA consultant David Brin's lengthy rebuttal to SETI enthusiast's optimism about alien intentions concludes: "The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions. It often proved fatal." (See full text at SETIleague.org.)
^Barker, P. A. (2014). “Quaternary climatic instability in south-east Australia from a multi-proxy speleothem record”. Journal of Quaternary Science29 (6): 589–596. Bibcode: 2014JQS....29..589W. doi:10.1002/jqs.2734.
^Vitousek, P. M., H. A. Mooney, J. Lubchenco, and J. M. Melillo. 1997. Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems. Science 277 (5325): 494–499; Pimm, S. L. 2001. The World According to Pimm: a Scientist Audits the Earth. McGraw-Hill, NY; The Guardian. 2005. Earth is All Out of New Farmland. 7 December 2005.
^ abMartin Rees (2004). OUR FINAL HOUR: A Scientist's warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century — On Earth and Beyond. ISBN0-465-06863-4
^Rose Somerville; John Somerville, introduction (1981). Soviet Marxism and nuclear war : an international debate : from the proceedings of the special colloquium of the XVth World Congress of Philosophy. Greenwood Press. p. 151. ISBN978-0-313-22531-4
^Goodman, Lisl Marburg; Lee Ann Hoff (1990). Omnicide: The Nuclear Dilemma. New York: Praeger. ISBN978-0-275-93298-5
^Daniel Landes, ed (1991). Confronting Omnicide: Jewish Reflections on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Jason Aronson, Inc. ISBN978-0-87668-851-9
^Barcella, Laura (2012). The end: 50 apocalyptic visions from pop culture that you should know about -- before it's too late. San Francisco, CA: Zest Books. ISBN978-0982732250
^Dinello, Daniel (2005). Technophobia!: science fiction visions of posthuman technology (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas press. ISBN978-0-292-70986-7
参考文献
Leslie, John. (1996). The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction. Routledge. ISBN0-415-18447-9
Rees, Martin. (2003). Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How terror, error, and environmental disaster threaten humankind's future in the century--on Earth and beyond. Basic Books. ISBN0-46506862-6.
Torres, Phil. (2017). Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing|Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing: An Introduction to Existential Risks. Pitchstone Publishing. ISBN978-1634311427.
Michel Weber, McPherson, "Near Term Extinction", Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 10, no. 2, 2014, pp. 319–326.
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