My question was &quot;what if we realize that life isn&#x27;t special?&quot; -- not &quot;what if we realize that humans aren&#x27;t special?&quot;. The fact that three commenters misinterpreted the former for the latter is only a proof of our anthropic bias.<p>We are not at all post-Copernican, strictly speaking. We value living things like we never did before. You occasionally hear discussion about granting rights to non-human animals: dolphins, apes, etc. That almost never happened in human history (save for a few cultures where certain animals are held to be holy). You are talking about moving away from anthropocentrism, while the scenario I&#x27;m describing is a bleak world where all life as such isn&#x27;t valued. In that world, there isn&#x27;t even any point of talking about &quot;saving the planet,&quot; because &quot;for whom are you saving it for? For polar bears? How are they any better than lifeless rocks: both products of geology?&quot;