Philosophical implications of extinction

1) It is definitionally impossible that human life would ever evolve on other planets. In order to be human life it would have had to be one of us. I guess the only possible way would be for genes from earth, carried by an explosion made their way to another planet where they become part of a new life cycle.If you mean humanoid or sentient life evolving, those are other questions entirely. I don't think it makes sense to discuss such a possibility as "our" future, but rather the future of life in the Universe. Lovecraft really scoped out this territory in his works.2) All you have is the life you are leading right at this moment, even if it is part of a life which spans eternity. Find who you are and live as best you can as your own being while allowing others to be who they are. Don't worry about what happens in some far flung future or for "humanity" which if evolution is correct we will likely one day grow out of anyway.Perhaps that might be another interesting question, should we be concerned about there eventually being no homo sapiens due to a progression of mutations over time?

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Pars beat me to the punch, but I'll try and make it more explicit. Unless you are broadening the word "human" to mean anything that is humanoid in shape, or sentient, then it is not just confined to this planet but specifically to us.Humans are homo sapiens or perhaps a couple of the homo species around that. That means specific dna, which means a specific ancestry.As pars pointed out, even if you reran earth's history it is a bit unlikely that the exact same events would occur resulting in our specific species. Nice analogy. That could also be used to answer your OP. Should family be concerned about their kids. Even if the kid may not have children and continue the line, or the parents will not be alive to see it, and in any case they know their immediate children as they themselves will be dead at some point anyway, its still ok.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Uh, given that humans are specifically the descendants of species existing on this planet, the answer must be that we are unique to this planet.In a vague metaphysical way we could say "I don't know" if we entertain the idea that humans were not descended from other animals, or that all of our descent was preprogrammed by humans from outside earth to create humans here (or all over the place), or that the only way evolution will work everywhere is through the same sorts of species leading to humans.Yeah, okay I don't know that those might not be true, but I have absolutely no reason to believe it is true and scientific evidence would point toward "no".

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Objectively, yes. Subjectively to themselves during their existence, yes. Subjectively to some other sentient species, not unless they encounter some traces of our life. I don't think I understand your question. If you mean do we exist if we have no way of surving an extinction event, then yes.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)