The problem with question 1 is that it makes the implicit assumption that either we have become extinct or things are more or less okay. I’m confident there will be still people around in, say, a thousand years. But it is the way of extinction that the outcome is often decided long before, and by factors having nothing to do with the cause of, the death of the last individual. If we fail to take this shot at escaping our boundaries, I’m not at all confident we’ll get another chance. We could end up in a scenario where our species still exists but extinction by ordinary geological processes has become inevitable.
The problem with question 3 is this it makes the implicit assumption that spending money with the stated aim of reducing the risk of extinction, will have the effect of reducing that risk rather than increasing it. Both the theory of how human psychology works in far mode, and experience with trying to spend money on politically charged good causes, suggests the opposite.
You aren’t obliged to agree with me on these points, but as they are the primary issues, if you are producing a document that claims to be a questionnaire, I will suggest it would be appropriate to spell out the primary issues as explicit questions rather than making them implicit assumptions.
The problem with question 1 is that it makes the implicit assumption that either we have become extinct or things are more or less okay. I’m confident there will be still people around in, say, a thousand years. But it is the way of extinction that the outcome is often decided long before, and by factors having nothing to do with the cause of, the death of the last individual. If we fail to take this shot at escaping our boundaries, I’m not at all confident we’ll get another chance. We could end up in a scenario where our species still exists but extinction by ordinary geological processes has become inevitable.
The problem with question 3 is this it makes the implicit assumption that spending money with the stated aim of reducing the risk of extinction, will have the effect of reducing that risk rather than increasing it. Both the theory of how human psychology works in far mode, and experience with trying to spend money on politically charged good causes, suggests the opposite.
You aren’t obliged to agree with me on these points, but as they are the primary issues, if you are producing a document that claims to be a questionnaire, I will suggest it would be appropriate to spell out the primary issues as explicit questions rather than making them implicit assumptions.