Samuel Sheffler wrote a book (excerpt linked) about the "afterlife" in a secular sense - the future society that endures beyond our own eventual demise. We have family members, close friends and associates, and the broader public which we care about and whom we hope will remember us by our best qualities. Many of us may wish that certain desires we have be satisfied even if we aren't around to know of their satisfaction (Scheffler believes this is a basic argument against experientialism, or the theory that only what we experience is what matters) - we may write wills, pass on inheritance, etc, all of which command others to do as we say even after we have died. For some, the political and ethical order matters a great deal and how they influence this and whether they are remembered for doing so is very important to them. Many devote their entire lives to creating something they will never live to see themselves.

But what would happen if the future of humanity turned out to be just about at its end? What if the world were to end in thirty years? A decade? A year? Two weeks from now? Tomorrow? What would happen?

I think this would make people, including myself, very perplexed. I have my projects and relationships that I care about. I want to live to see my goals realized and enjoy the presence of my close friends and family. Although I know I will eventually die (and I do not believe in an afterlife), I nevertheless do not want these things to end quite yet. Perhaps I am kicking the can down the road. Or perhaps there are things within life that can justify the continuation of life for as long as we care about them.

But with the guarantee of imminent extinction, all of these things' eventual demise are accelerated. A lot of them would lose their value and meaning - "meaning", in a philosophical-existential sense, is primarily concerned with the victory over death by creating something that will sustain our image by proxy, in the absence of any actual me. (Even suicidal people may wish to be remembered by how they decided to end their lives, for instance. Some may want to leave an impression or voice an opinion, while others may wish to be remembered for their love of their close ones. Very rarely do you have suicides that are not out of desperation that lack a heroic quality. Not very many just...die.)

As Scheffler argues, very many things would cease to be in the wake of imminent destruction. Cancer research would likely cease, for example. Environmental groups, depending on the nature of the extinction event, might either take this as a hugely positive thing (such as VHEMT), or lose all grounds for continuation (why save the rainforests if they're going to be consumed by the Sun in 10 years?). It seems likely to me that political squabbles would cease as people began to digest the notion that human civilization is essentially at an end, whereas religious movements would likely blossom around the notion of final judgement, salvation, or some other form of eschatology.

Most scientific research would likely come to a halt. Nobody would care about the penguins, lunar dust or the gross domestic product of Brazil. None of that would matter. There would, of course, be the frantic search for an escape that would probably take most of the resources and might actually unite the people of the Earth for the first time in history. Many would dedicate all their energy into getting humans to a different planet to escape whatever was coming / had come. On the other hand, certain fringe research would also likely be promoted by the more reasonable and level-headed people: psychological research into coping with death would be a prime focus, as would research into the establishment of easy-access, pain-free suicide methods.

The world would experience an unimaginable economic shift, as the cancer that is capitalism falls apart when people realize they are working (exploited) for a future that will never come. Likely there would be scattered communes across the world, communistic and anarchistic, populated by people with a check on their ambition and who wish to simply live out their days until the final end.

What I find to be interesting is how, in my opinion, modern society is wholly unprepared to deal with something like this on its own. Quite literally, only God can save us. It seems to me as if there is a specter of annihilation hiding behind the concept of the future. I wonder what a truly secular and irreligious society would do in light of a imminent extinction. Hopefully when the end of humanity does eventually occur it happens quickly, so the bandage is ripped off without much whining and confusion.

And what about yourself? How would you cope knowing nobody in the near future would ever remember any of your achievements, personality, or even your very existence? Might some of us actually welcome this perpetual anonymity? What would we do to pass the time before the annihilation began?