ABSTRACT
Three mounted skeletons of the giant “Irish elk” (Megaloceros giganteus) greet you on the Ground Floor of Ireland’s Natural History Museum (Músaem Stair an Dúlra) in downtown Dublin. In this final chapter, we use their magnificence as an iconic metaphor for the fact that extinction is an evolutionary reality. Given the ease with which we humans are good at believing whatever we want to believe, and given that our planet is now in an episode of escalating mass extinction, is there any way we can save ourselves? We think there are two things that all of us must do. First, we must learn to distrust what even our own brains are telling us. Second, we must remember there is a dark side to The Great Human High-Five Advantage. Our strengths at making sense of the world are undeniable. Unfortunately it seems all too easy for all of us to forget that evolution has not made us angels. As Linnaeus knew, but others have overlooked, we are smart enough as a species for each of us to live up to the ancient admonition γνῶθι σεαυτόν, “Know thyself.” This does not entitle us to call ourselves Homo sapiens. This is a title we must earn by what we do to save ourselves from extinction.
