Most frightening and/or depressing story: If humans are subject to the same natural laws as all other species on Earth, we are doomed to certain extinction by our limited genetic variety, declining fertility, and overexploitation of our habitat. So, how different are we? I can spin up a hopeful story where are evolving and overcoming our limitations through intelligence and technology, but time will tell if this is right or wrong.

Most hopeful story: Metformin, a diabetes drug, might be able to preemptively treat a variety of diseases colloquially referred to as “old age”.

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: Biotechnology might be on the cusp of producing plants that can make more efficient use of the sun’s energy. This could be good for the food supply, and bad if the damn things escape into the woods. And in tangentially related news, yields of salad vegetables can actually be higher in urban areas than on conventional farms. Those coastal elites and their fancy salads, why can’t they just live on simple basic grains like Doritos the way the rest of us do?