It's not like these things people have done are exactly safe and side-effect free already. People have: * Made entire species extinct through hunting and defor

It's not like these things people have done are exactly safe and side-effect free already. People have: * Made entire species extinct through hunting and deforestation * As a side effect of industrialization, dumped enough CO2 to change the climate and will probably keep it up * Domesticated multiple other species into being dependent on us, from crops to farm animals to dogs * Started work on AI and machines which might even replace us one day Genetic modification isn't a one-way street to destruction as much as AI is, or industrialization. Also regarding perpetuating life: the one thing life has in common is that it perpetuates itself. We'd be a shitty species if we perpetuated machines or microbes instead of ourselves.