Species extinction isn't the issue. Humans are perfectly capable of devolving to a resilient but not very interesting pre-hunter/gatherer culture.

For most of human history, that's all there was.

The problem is knowledge extinction. It's a huge waste to have learned so much over the last few centuries, and then to throw it away through lack of imagination.

But then I've suggested before that all intelligent species have to pass through a similar bottleneck, when the instincts and low-grade sentient processes that promote individual survival but lack broader context have to be replaced by sentient processes that are aware of the species-wide value and potential of cooperation, context and symbiosis.

For now, this is still the Darwinian Dreamtime - at least for our so-called leaders.