How far will we delay our extinction (at max)

99% of all the life forms have ever lived on the surface of the planet earth are not here anymore, they are all extinct. Extinction is much more common than we think, no matter how great the creatures adapt to the environment to survive and develop surprisingly incredible defend mechanisms, just to transfer their genes to the next generation, the extinction somehow has always been the ultimate result for all. There has been always an open point that the living beings could not catch up even though they tried their best, and ceased to exist. Nature is an emotionless serial murder machine and always one step further. Almost all the life forms we are currently observing today will go extinct one day, for somehow reason, no matter what.

What if you try to beat the unbeatable one. That's right, I am talking about us, the homo sapiens. The ultimate design of the nature, can control and transform not its surroundings, but the entire planet at its best. Although our existence is pretty new as a comparison with many life forms who exist and ever existed, and we did not yet being challenged by a real global catastrophe, like the dinosaurs had during the infamous asteroid impact, our abilities and awareness might be something our planet had never witnessed before. Even though we were almost went extinct, we survived toba (a supermassive volcanic activity) during the early years of homo sapiens (the reason why today's entire human race comes from some 5000 people lived in 70 000 BC ) and we successfully adapted the last ice age, and where we come today, with our knowledge, experiences, and most importantly, as we are the most communal and globally organized living being ever that we seem pretty much tough to be destroyed. But as mentioned above, we are pretty new and raised to power so fast that can be overthrown even faster, if we consider the mother nature, the ultimate cruel killing system.

There is even more. Mother nature isn't the only killer around, yet our planet is an open system, and we are faced with all the danger of our universe. As Dr Michio Kaku mentioned, there are three possible types of a universal civilization, and we are not even type one, as not yet have full control of our own planet. So how can we possibly have defence against a universal threat without being extinct?

For the sake of the topic, lets say there is a great, bright future for our species, and we overcome all the possible hazards around (fatal epidemics, cosmic rays, asteroids, zombie invasions, alien invasions, fallouts, artificial takeovers etc. etc. ) But really, how far can we go? Can we exist forever, at least, in theory? Is there an ultimate limit?

The bad news is unfortunately, yes, there is most likely an ultimate limit. And this limit is not for us only, for any life form that will ever possibly exist in the future, not only on earth, but anywhere in the universe. The good news is that if we are lucky enough, at our best, we will continue being around for a long time, even after the death of earth, the planet where we evolved.

Firstly, as our planet exist, if we won't have some extreme conditions, a good chance we will continue our existence. The secret here is having energy consumption faster than the frequency of life-threatening catastrophes (e.g. meteor impacts, ice ages, etc.). If we grow any slower, we are doomed to extinction. ( check http://mkaku.org/home/articles/the-physics-of-extraterrestrial-civilizations/ ). In this matter, we can go something like 1.1 billion more years.

After 1.1 billion years, as sun starts running out of hydrogen as its fuel, the solar luminosity will be 10% higher than at present. This will cause a brighter sun and make significant changes on earth, like evaporation of oceans and killer greenhouse effect. An ultimately, after 5 billion years, sun will go supernova and destroy earth completely with other planets in solar system. But this will not be likely an end for us, as we would left earth long time ago, having colonies on another life friendly planet or planets, orbits another young star, continue colonizing our galaxy and mostly safe from the destruction of our solar system.

In case we survive the next couple of billions of years, we will have some colonies in other solar systems in our own galaxy, milky way, but probably no further.  Unfortunately, the universe is expending much faster than we could reach the other galaxies, there will be absolutely no way to reach them even with the fastest spacecrafts, even know anything about them. In a far future, the far galaxies will completely be out of our sight even with the strongest telescopes could see, the sky will be much darker and perhaps our grandchildren will perceive the universe much smaller and lonely than we do in present day.

In short, when our galaxy will have an end, it will be our ultimate end as well. The fate of our galaxy is actually linked to the fate of the universe itself. We certainly know the universe will have an end, but the question is how, and it all depends on the behavior of the dark energy presence in the universe. If all keeps it up like now, the big freeze will bring an end to mankind. It means we will likely be around after the last star of our galaxy run out of its fuel and disappear, and because of the big freeze, it will literally be, the last star. That star will not be a yellow star like our sun, but a red dwarf instead, which consists of about %70 of all stars in the universe. Since red dwarfs have a much longer average life than any other type of stars (about 10 trillion years, compared to our sun, which is couple of billion years), because they tend to burn their hydrogen much much slower (the reason why they create a red spectrum), they will be our last hope to survive in our galaxy.



For more details about it, check out my previous article; http://homo-curiosus.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/universe-or-multiverse.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/10/22/163397584/how-human-beings-almost-vanished-from-earth-in-70-000-b-c

http://mkaku.org/home/articles/the-physics-of-extraterrestrial-civilizations/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/earth_timeline/future_earth

Universe or Multiverse?

Before 100 years ago, the concept of multiverse was meaningless. According to most of the scientists, the universe was considered as infinite and boundless, it was always there as its current form and stable, yet it does not have a beginning and an end. Then it was discovered that the universe was not stable at all, but it was expanding, all galaxies and known matter are traveling apart from each other. Scientists started thinking that if universe was expanding its size, then it means all the matter was coming from a smaller point, and so the Big Bang theory was born.

According to the theory, the universe was not eternal at all, but had a beginning. And it was not endless, the total matter and energy it contains was finite. After the construction of Hubble telescope and locating it at the outer space, the orbit of earth, we had the opportunity of the most possible clear views of the universe ever. Since the light has a speed and takes longer to travel from further distances, the further out we looked, the further back in time we see. The Hubble telescope was able to see the things until 14 billion light years away, which is considered the age of the universe, the time the big bang happened.

Nobody knows what was before the big bang, or what will the ultimate fate of the universe be. Since the Big Bang the universe continues to expend, surprisingly with an accelerating speed, caused by dark energy. Because we cannot see and measure the dark energy, it is hard to say whether it is constant, increasing or decreasing. The three different scenario about the fate of the universe depends on dark energy. The most likely scenario is if dark energy is constant, then the universe will continue its expansion forever, that will be a cold and lonely place, the big freeze. Another scenario will be in action in case the dark energy increases its power by time, then the acceleration of expansion of the universe will increase so fast that at one point, the gravity will not be able to hold the atoms of matters together, this will bring an end to galaxies, stars, planets etc. even the atom itself will be split into protons neutrons and electrons and those into smaller particles, quarks. Those quarks will move so fast and apart from each other that will never be able to combine and create atoms, therefore the matter, which is called the big rip. The last possible scenario is if the dark energy is losing power, then by time, gravitational force of galaxies will eventually overcome over the impulsing force of dark energy, therefore the expansion of universe will stop at some point, and then this time the process will be reversed and the universe will start shrinking with an accelerating speed, until all matter and energy squeeze in one single point, the big crunch, which eventually will cause a new big bang.

Whatever will be the fate of the universe, we all know now that universe is not eternal, and it contains finite amount of matter and energy. This statement brings us the critical question to ask. Is the universe alone, or are there other independent universes somewhere? It is quite fair to ask this question, as the universe is finite, and if the all cosmos is infinite, therefore there can be infinite number of other universes, the multiverse. Our universe is expanding, which means all the matter we know are moving apart from each other. But if there are some other matter somewhere out that moving towards us, not the apart, that means that matter did not originated from our own big bang, but from another independent big bang, another universe. 

Unlike big bang and evolution, the multiverse is not a theory, but a hypothesis, as we have no evidence and no possible way to perform an observation to test that hypothesis at that very moment. We cannot see beyond the observable universe, but the complete darkness, we simply do not know what else is out there, or there is something else out there or not. The problem is that we might never be able to find it out, as the light has a limited speed, the empty space between those possible universes could be so extensive, that the first light originated from another big bang could reach to our observable universe after trillions and trillions of light years, a time length that could be longer that the entire possible life of our own universe.

The amount of dark energy in our universe is just the right amount to make our universe the way it is today. Our universe makes up approximately %68 dark energy, %26 dark matter and %6 ordinary matter. Dark energy is in fact, according to quantum physics, the pure energy of the perfect vacuum of space. The value of dark energy is constant everywhere of space in our universe. In the atomic level of space, it is incredibly small amount, approximately 1.10⁻¹²⁰ .This combination has the critical importance, for example, 1.10⁻¹¹⁷ a bit more powerful dark energy would still be a very small amount, but it would cause a tremendous accelerate of the expansion of the universe right after the big bang that the galaxies and stars, therefore life would never exist, and 1.10⁻¹²³ less dark energy would cause the shrinking of the universe a short time after the big bang because of the power of gravitational force, once again the universe of today would never exist either. The reason of this sensitive balance is still a mystery, however, if we live in a multiverse, then it is not a mystery at all, as there are infinite number of other universes, it is just one among the infinite number of combinations. There might be billions of other universes that the dark energy has the wrong amount, and thus those are uninhabitable, and the others, those are similar to our universe. 

Evolution of Religion

Our smart brains are a gift of nature, but a curse, at the same time. Millions of years evolved the nerve system into complex, huge amount of data processed and stored bionic computers, and beyond. At one point, smarter meant more likely to survive, and this impulsed the need of complexity, in order to think more critically and evaluate your own actions and the environment. This worked perfectly, and enabled us security, resiliency, adaptability to every condition, adaptability to change, transform and rule the environment. However, complex brains did not bring us happiness. The more knowledge you will have, more sad you will be. Now we know more, much more than the other animals. But this automatically brings us more responsibilities, disappointments and melancholia, in short, a harder and more complex life to live and to think about. Many primitive animals have a simple life, they eat, sleep, reproduce and die. More complex animals have somehow concerns, always being aware not to be eaten, developing strategies to hunt, or being attractive to find a mate. This causes stress and somehow damages the brain and the body, eventually. Homo sapiens have amazingly much more concerns about the life. We have too much complex brains and psychology. Without support, each of us literally would go mad in a very short time, having mental illnesses, and commit suicide at the end, if not, having a heart attack because of over stress. Even though some of us are experiencing these scenarios inevitably.

So what kind of support helps us to cool down our brains, all the time? The list is pretty long; Having sex, collecting stamps, chatting with family members, with friends, visiting new places, consuming alcohol, smoking weed... In short, anything gives us happiness and psychological support no matter what. But there is one more thing that surpass all in most ways; having a faith.

Karl Marx once said; "Religion is the opium of masses.'' This statement is in fact literally true and demonstrates the evolutionary importance of religion for human beings. Despite of all the side effects and harms, we do use drugs, because it makes us feel good. So does religion. Religion provides psychological security and undisputed, unchangeable, certain knowledge about everything we need to know. For centuries, according to many people, it was good to know that there were god(s), or spirits, who are more powerful and more knowing than us, and in many cases, they were ready to protect us, provide a better life, with less pain and danger, even in some cases, promising an eternal life with infinite happiness and joy. This made us happy, and enabled a psychological and mental support. This support is actually very important for our health. Homo sapiens evolved to be religious, because of the evolutionary advantages of having a faith.

In ancient times the basic knowledge about the environment and about how things work was limited. We observed the good and bad things in our lives. For example, many people understood sun was good. When there was  no sun, it was night. Night was dark and cold. And many predator animals, our enemies were active during the night, they were disappearing every time the sun was rose again. Many thought sun was protecting all of us from danger, therefore, it was a living being, a spirit, and it was good. Some of us thought we should be grateful against it, not to be rude, so that it won't stop protecting us. We can say that the superstitions drove the first religions. When we go hunting, sometimes we were successful, sometimes not. Many people thought we should pray to the spirits, the unseen driven power of nature, so that would please them and we could be successful most of the time. Sometimes, simple prays did not work, so instead of giving up, people thought spirits - god(s) needed more, like sacrifices.

When we were alone, it was hard for us to maintain psychological support, because we needed to talk someone. We always wished someone or something understands our feelings the best, apart from ourselves, and supports us at all time. Because even with words, it is impossible to express the actual feelings no matter what. Religion provided unlimited protection and care, blessings and invisible friends. It gave us eternal fathers and mothers, who continued living with us, even after our actual father and mother passed away.

Soon after, the human leaders, chiefs of tribes, kings, emperors perceived another importance of religion and how to rule their people better by using it. Many leader became divine, living gods,  who is responsible of good things, should be worshiped and being obeyed; or became a power who represents the invisible god(s), having divine rights to rule, should be obeyed at all time. This immense power enabled leaders and dynasties to create large empires. When ruler captured new lands, they wanted the new people living on those lands should also being submitted to their order, so the concept of being converted gained importance.Before the american and french revolutions and rise of the idea of nationalism, religion was the primary factor to stick the peoples together as nations.

By time the human life became more complicated, so did the religion. With agricultural revolution, people became settled, so the temples were built. With the invention of writing, religions became in written forms. Writing enabled humanity communicate each other better and faster, and spread the ideas. This also enabled spreading the religions and conversions, as well as enabled plagiarism, and mixing the religions, in many cases. When Alexander the Great conquered most of the near east, the ancient greek religion mixed up with many local religions in ancient egypt, mesopotamia and persia, and those with each other. Greek language became lingua franca in those regions, so that many scolars could understand each other and could share the knowledge and culture, as well as the religion. 

Religions did affected and plagiarized each other mostly, in same regions when they presented closely. However, geographical barriers caused religions evolve different to one another. The content and structure of religions born in the Middle East and Europe are way quite different than the ones of India and all those to the ones originated in China. For example, the Abrahamic religions and the Dharmic religions are disputed about what happens after the death. The common belief in Islam and Christianity of the Abrahamic religions, as well as in Zoroastrianism which all were originated in closer areas, the soul leaves the body and enters the afterlife, where being judged by an authority based on the deeds he or she was committed on earth, and eventually, being sent to heaven for rewarding or to hell for punishment where stays eternally and never goes back to the earth. On the other hand, in Sikhism, Buddhism and Hinduism of Dharmic religions, of India, the soul never goes to somewhere else but stay on the earth, and enters within a different newborn human, or another life form, based on his or her actions in previous life, the reincarnation, which lasts forever. Another difference is deciding how to please the god(s). In western polytheistic religions and judaism, animal sacrifice is an important ritual, however, in many eastern religions, not to harm any creature and protecting the life is considered the right way to do so. One problem with the Religion itself is despite of the claim that the rules and statements are directly come from a divine authority, and because that authority is invisible and unable to contact directly with its followers, the comments and meanings of statements differs from person to person, and this causes separation of the actual religion into countless of different sects, in  most cases.

Today, we have much knowledge than that in the past. We have much more confidence and less need being cared of a superior being, than anytime in the human history. We have much more freedom of speech and expression of our ideas. In fact, there were always lots of people who had lack of faith, but could not speak up because of the pressure of the others. Atheism and Agnosticism are gaining popularity among the people, but religion is still ruling over the mankind, deciding our actions and the way we live. The concept of religion continued being shaped by the technology and progress humanity gained. Ancient Greeks believed gods were living on the top of Mount Olympus. Jews in prehistoric times believed Yahweh was somewhere on the top of the clouds, where he sent rain to flood the earth during the big flood. Now, the religious people do believe the God is present beyond time and space, as we reached top of the mountains, clouds and started discovering the space. As the religion continues to exist, God(s) will always be somewhere beyond our reach, where we cannot see them and interact with them.

What Will Happen to the Other Life Forms When Homo Sapiens Go Extinct?

After the dinosaurs went extinct as a result of an asteroid hit the earth, the small mammals had a chance to leave their holes during the daylight and walked around the surface mostly without the fear of being eaten. This enabled them to evolve into larger animals and conquer the animal kingdom. Thanks to that asteroid, we are here now, populating the earth. We have made significant changes since our existence, we destroyed the big wild animal herds, we destroyed the natural plant ecosystems and replaced with farms, we domesticated and created new species. Many animals disappeared because of our direct or indirect involvement; mammoths, dodos, Tasmanian wolves, passenger pigeons, quaggas, even homo neanderthalensis, our very human cousins; the list goes on.

Today 7 billion of us are populating the earth and continue to deepen our impact into it. But what if our existence comes to a dramatic end? What would happen, because of whatever reasons, if we disappear in a short time period, let’s say within a thousand years or so.

In this article, I am only going to talk about the consequences of our extinction. I am going to write another article soon about the most realistic reasons how we could go extinct if we did.

First of all, some animals would also disappear with us forever right after our fall. The human lice and the bed bugs are completely adapted as human parasites and they cannot survive in a world without humans, therefore they would quickly go extinct as well. Some endangered species, like giant pandas today are completely dependent on to human care, especially the weak baby pandas. Without our protection, they would face the harsh rules of natural selection and die out in a short time period. Some urban invaders, like rats and cockroaches, will have a hard time in the absent of human junk, however thanks to their adaptability to every condition, after some will perish, the others will readapt to wildlife as they used to be, with a significantly decreased population.

There are billions of domesticated animals around the world. We domesticated, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens mainly to maintain a secure food source, instead of chasing wild games. Many of those animals also provide transportation like horses, wools and leather for clothing, and so on. Dog was probably the first animal ever domesticated, in order to help hunting. Except dogs, there are many other pets, like cat, goldfish, parakeet and hamster. Unlike their wild cousins, those animals do not have to search for food, they are raised and fed by humans. Food and fresh water is not the only thing they receive, but protection from the carnivores. When humans first started domesticated them, they did not care about sharp horns and strong legs, but a fat body that can provide more meat, big breasts for milking, and most importantly, docile behaviours as they less resist to slaughtering, and they cherry-picked those for inbreeding. As a result of this, they lost their speed, strength and adaptability to survive in wild life, and completely dependent on human activity.

When the humans disappear, all those animals will become waif and face with serious consequences. At first, as the food and water provide will be completely cut off, many farm animals will die instantly. Unlike the wild omnivores, those billions are not adapted to find their own food, but are fed with corn and soybeans. Right after that, the remaining population will be an easy target for the wild predators. Unprotected cattle and sheep will especially increase the number of wolves, dramatically. But when all cattle and sheep went extinct, many excessive wolves will also die out subsequently back to a closer population previously. The animal carcasses will feed many scavengers, like jackals, hyenas, vultures and crows, but again, those will be temporary, and tend to go back. Some domesticated animals might have quite different fate, especially the domesticated carnivores. Cats are somehow still luckier to find their own food, despite many will also die as a result of competition with the other carnivores, some of them will have a chance to completely turn into wild and adapt to Mother Nature. Just like dingoes of Australia, as once upon a time they were also domesticated, some dogs, especially stronger breeds like german shepherd or husky, will adapt to wildlife and will create new kinds of wild dogs as a result of interbreeding each other or with wolves and coyotes. Some of those new generations might superior than wolves and coyotes and might win the competition as to replace them at the end, similar to the story of coywolf.

Pigs might also be an exception, as they have been observed that once they break out their fences and escape, they tend much faster to turn into feral, growing longer hair and even wild boar like tusks. Pig’s diet is much broader than those cattle or dogs as they are omnivores and much easier to find their own food in nature. Despite of many fat pigs will perish, many will survive and turn into a new wild species, and some will interbreed with wild boars, to generate a stronger breed. Pigs are very smart animals and those survivor will even be smarter as the smarter ones are likely survive, and transfer their genes to the following generations. As they also have ability to breed quickly, they might be a dominant species in the world.

The animal kingdom will not be the only life form under effect. Many domesticated plants will perish without the humans. Today, most of the land surface is invaded by farms and plantations, to feed billions of people and another billions of domesticated animals. Those plants found a chance to spread over thanks to industrialised and technological farming methods. They can survive with human irrigation without dependence of rain, they are regularly fertilized, and they do not have to care about pests and diseases as much as we care about it.

The human extinction will completely be a disaster for those farms. In first stage, most of the crops, maize, oats, wheat, barley, etc. will quickly dry out. As there will be no human to replant the new seeds, they will go to extinct. Then, the invaders will come, the parasite insects, birds, omnivores will attack to those undefended ones, without the human protection and pesticides. The farms will turn into empty soils. The gardens will dry out and go to wild without human care. Then, the next invaders will appear; the weeds will freely cover up those newly vacant areas. Those weeds will prevent the farms turn into natural pastures, meadows and forests for a long time period. Eventually, it will take hundreds of years for the land turn into forests as it used to be before the first agricultural revolution. By time, as the structures and cities continue their slow destruction, the urbanized amazon region of Brazil and plains of Indian subcontinent will be covered by rainforests, east coast of the United States by broadleaf forests and east China by bamboo forests within a thousand years or so. In the great plains of North America, the bison will again invade large areas as they used to be. The big herds of the savannah of Africa will also increase and spread their population throughout the continent. Unlike those areas, the plains of Eurasia will remain empty for a long time, until evolution of an alternative big mammal, perhaps in a million years or so.

Are We Capable To Wipe Out Another Life Form Intentionally?

Homo sapiens. The ultimate masterpiece of the evolution. Although not the only species which are able to shape its environment, we do shape it a lot more than any other one. We build skyscrapers. We make giant aeroplanes. We control the rivers. We split the atom. We travel to outer space, also into the deep ocean. We live everywhere, from the deserts to rainforests, and to the ice covered lands. But are we really owners of the earth? How much undisputed our rule over the world? Are we the sole master race among all other creatures sharing this same planet? If we are, then how can we claim this status?

Our life conditions and capabilities changed a lot since first Homo sapiens evolved. In 200 000 years ago, we were much more vulnerable to the environmental conditions. Unlike our big ape cousins who evolved in rainforests with the protection of trees, the savannah was much more brutal place to exist for us. We were easy prays for big predators, yet we had to compete with them for food sources. Our biggest competitors were perhaps lions in Africa, who live and hunt as big flocks and physically much stronger than us. As a result of the evolutionary process, we learned how to collaborate together to ambush and hunt bigger prays, with better hand tools and spears, and provided ourselves more food to increase our population.

Our ideas and inventions never stopped being generated. The first agricultural revolution helped us to feed millions and to secure our food supply, to provide better collaboration and community living in cities. This created much more complex relationships, hierarchical status and social classes among mankind, which increased our power. The ability to produce metal tools gave us better weapons. The invention of writing, and later on printing spread the ideas, knowledge and secured the communication rapidly all over the globe, which gave us an incredible superiority among other species; the ability to communication globally, which is much powerful than the distances the howling of wolves and the songs of dolphins could reach. The industrial revolution enabled us to build amazing structures and vehicles, fed billions. There are lots of evidences we demonstrate that we are the most awesome creature ever existed.

The question is, now, how powerful we are. Let’s suppose all the mankind, 7 billion people decided to work together for one purpose, and created a budget, wiping out whole population of a kind, for some reason. In 200 000 years ago we were unable to exterminate the entire lion populating on purpose, but now, we are, if we wanted to. We do not need to use anything from our nuclear arsenal, some riflemen with automatic weapons with helicopters and jeeps are enough to do the job, in a very short period of time. We can put baits and poison many of them. We already know most of their dwelling locations and migration routes. If we consistently pursue from satellites and spy airplanes, we can find the remaining individual and hunt them down.

We can do the very same thing to wolves, bears, tigers, elephants, giraffes and any other big mammals. Tigers might hide in the deep rainforest, so we could destroy its ecosystem with Agent Orange and napalm in order to reach the isolated individuals. In the past, we almost wiped out the wolves, declaring them the enemies of mankind. Today they are reproducing thanks to our decision to protect them. This shows some of our power and capabilities among the big animals.

What if we decrease the size, and look for other kinds. Can we kill all the mice? How about cockroaches? They are not in savannah or rainforests, hiding inside our homes, living with us side by side. Are we capable to destroy the entire of them? Not the entire human race, but most of us already fighting with them, usually using high amounts of poisons, chemicals and traps. But all those methods are temporary, and we pursue our fight individually, just to keep them in control locally. But if all of us, come together to intentionally destroy cockroaches, and does not care about any cost at all, whether economically or environmentally, there is a big chance we could do it.

Today, we are seriously thinking to exterminate the mosquitoes. The mosquito is the animal causes the most of human deaths each year by far. According to World Health Organisation, the mosquito related diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever and zika virus, kills over 3 million people each year. One method is considered to do this job is producing genetically modified mosquitos in laboratory environment and release them to the nature. The modified gene, called HEG, will be transferred to the next generation when the affected mosquito mates with the unaffected one. And in case of the breeding two mosquitos who carry HEG, will produce totally infertile generation who are unable to reproduce. According to the scientists, this method would wipe out four fifth of all mosquitoes within 36 weeks. A similar method could be applied to any other developed multicellular organism.

What about simpler life forms? Are we capable to destroy any kind of bacteria in theory? The bacteria invade everywhere on the surface of our planet, even in harsher conditions we could not bear to exist. What about viruses? We are trying to destroy them. The problem is those kind of life forms do evolve incredibly fast, being resistant to anything we throw at them. It seems we do have some cracks on our throne, to rule over every kind of animal.

Even if in theory we are capable doing something does not mean we actually are in reality. Even killing the mosquitoes, the most dangerous animal in the world, would bring some serious consequences to the balance of nature and food supply chain, as the male mosquitoes cause the pollination of plants and those feed many other animals. The ultimate result could harm the humanity more than the mosquitoes are doing today. Wiping out a species may even indirectly cause our own extinction.

It seems we are far from being the owner of the world, but highly dependent to it, even how awesome we are and technologically developed we are. Our existence is still mostly out of our control, and mostly by chance. We need to remember our other human cousins, how did they lost the competition of being exist, and how are we still alive, still as a result of the evolution, more than the result of our own achievement. Our species is only 200 000 years ago, and yet despite of our 7 billion population, extremely strong communication and all abilities, there is no guarantee we will continue being in existence in the near future.

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens

http://www.hardydiagnostics.com/articles/The-Most-Deadly-Animals.pdf

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-172757/Is-end-mosquito.html