So you’ve been hanging out with a brilliant, heroic, similar-to-but-not-really human extraterrestrial hero, writing wrongs and singing songs as y’all explore the universe. Unfortunately, the latest adventure has ended badly. The Earth’s atmosphere has been rendered unbreathable for humans; the CO level’s been raised to lethal levels, by, I don’t know. Brainiac. The Humanity’s been wiped out, and this time there’s no clever reversal at the last nano-second. Dejected but philosophical, your hero friend is boarding her spacecraft and about to resume her wanderings through the stars.
Take as a given that there are other superficially humanoid species in existence, but none that are really human; that is, you may be able to have sex with some of them, but you won’t be making babies with 'em, and the most psychologically-similar to human race is as different from us as Star Trek’s Vulcans. Most are even stranger. Also take as a given that your hero friend has no access to time travel technology–there’s no do-overs–and that the villain responsible for humanity’s virtual extinction has been killed, so there’s no danger of him tracking you down to finish the job.
Do you join your hero friend, or remain on the suffocated Terra to die?
Of course I’d join my friend. She is my friend. Plus, it’s always possible that there are other humans off-Earth: there are all those tales of alien abductions, and just as I am with my friend, so others may be with their friends.
So I have this hero friend who will take me on a tour of the universe, but I also have the option to stay on a ruined planet as the last of my kind? Yeah, this isn’t a terribly difficult choice. I’d take the universe tour even if Earth was pristine.
ETA: Shoulda mentioned this was a public poll. It doesn’t matter much in this case, but it’s the courteous thing to do. (In case you have a hypothetical, I dunno, masturbation poll in the future.)
Yeah, being given the choice when Earth and humanity weren’t dead would be more telling. As it stands, I’d be sad once in a while when I thought of what was lost, and I’d want to salvage some things for the Galactic Museum and Library… but most of the time I’d be busy with space adventure and getting to know my alien peeps.