The Anthropocene Explosion - Essay by Koert van Mensvoort (2014)

What a thought-provoking read.

It seems like the author is cautiously suggesting that we write off many of our negative impacts on the natural environment, because the balance of complexity has actually risen due to our technological creations. That it's OK if our technologies elbow out living species. As a staunch environmentalist but also a lover of science fiction and technology, I find this argument fascinating. But I have to wonder - if this became the dominant human position, then what would that mean for the intelligent, self-replicating technologies we create? Would they internalize our "only complexity matters" code of ethics? And if they did, then might not they wipe us away for any reason? "Sorry, we need the resources that human civilization contains. Your complexity:consumption ratio is inefficient."

If this piece wasn't from 2014 then I might make the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that this think-piece originated from a clandestine superintelligence, paving the philosophical way for its eventual claim to human-held resources.