There are no guarantees.
Even if our principles are infallible, we certainly aren't.
Every person, every country, and every empire in history has inevitably died. And as technology accelerates this process, our fate looks surer than ever.
Maybe consciousness is an emergent property of compute. Maybe technology tears our society apart at the seams. Maybe there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
What to rely on, then, in a world where nothing can be relied on?
Adventure.
Acting out the greatest possible story, across the longest span of time, benefiting the largest number of people we can manage.
Hearing the earthquake coming, and building an empire anyway, so that somebody might repair it tomorrow.
Chances are, things won't turn out how we expect.
But maybe that was never the point.