Interestingly, I experience more anxiety from the thought of being made irrelevant than from the prospect of complete human extinction. I guess this can be interpreted as either vanity or stupidity, but I do think it illustrates how important it is for some humans to maintain their position in the social hierarchy.
This is totally normal. It's very common for people to be more scared of public speaking than of dying, for example; there's no shame in it. It's helpful to be aware of, even, because if we know that we're not perfectly "rational" with our fears we can try to compensate.
If there's a referendum between two government policies, the first that every single person had to publicly speak in front of at least ten strangers once a year, that policy would be terrifying and bad to people who don't like public speaking. If the second policy was that every single person should be killed, that might be scary but it's not really as viscerally scary as the forced public speaking madman, at least to a lot of people, and it's also so bad that we have a natural impulse to just reject it as possible.
Nevertheless, if we recognise these impulses in ourselves we can attempt to adjust for them and tick the right box on the imaginary referendum, because even though public speaking is really bad and scary, it's still better than everyone dying.
I feel the same. I'm not sure it's as negative a trait as you imply though. I don't think it's related that much with social hierarchy either.
As humans we must collectively provide value to our society (or historically our tribe) for our species to continue on. If we're a net drain on our society's resources then evolutionary speaking perhaps we're better off not around. I think this is why the desire to be of value to those around us is so strong, and a perceived lack of value to others can drive some to suicide.
If I cannot provide value in some way once AI and machines are physical and intellectually more capable than me I think I will struggle to understand why I'm here. I suppose if the AI utopia works out I'd get to spend more time with those I love. That would be nice. But I'd be surprised if there wasn't a deep hole in my heart at that point. And if it isn't a utopia, well, I'm fairly sure I'd rather opt out.
