I appreciate your feedback, Erik. I would like to be more positive, but I think not enough people are aware of the real dangers of self-annihilation. Most likely to me, however, is that we face severe population decline and fragmentation in the next century or two, not outright extinction.

As for positive ways forward, I think they can involve judicious uses of new technologies, including artifical cognitive agents. The danger is that new technologies may get out of control or have unfortunate, unintended consequences. I am especially worried about unforeseen consequences of genetic engineering technologies.