Eduard von Hartmann

Are you familiar with the 19th century philosopher, Eduard von Hartmann? In 1869, he wrote the book Philosophy of the Unconscious. As an aside, some modern philosophers have noted this book as being a bridge between Schopenhauer's notion of Will and Freud's notion of the Unconscious. Anyways, in this book Hartmann outlines his ideas, which I summarize below:

From source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Human life labors under three illusions: (1) that happiness is possible in this life, which came to an end with the Roman Empire; (2) that life will be crowned with happiness in another world, which science is rapidly dissipating; (3) that happy social well-being, although postponed, can at last be realized on earth, a dream which will also ultimately be dissolved. Man’s only hope lies in “final redemption from the misery of volition and existence into the painlessness of non-being and non-willing.” No mortal may quit the task of life, but each must do his part to hasten the time when in the major portion of the human race the activity of the Unconscious shall be ruled by intelligence, and this stage reached, in the simultaneous action of many persons volition will resolve upon its own non-continuance, and thus idea and will be once more reunited in the Absolute.

It is interesting to know that point 3 from above may refer to such utopian political theories as communism, fascism, and the like. The main ethical import from Unconscious is that we should try to find individual happiness in as many endeavors as possible in the ironic goal that, at one point in the future, humans will realize that all endeavors of happiness are in vain, and unsatisfying. At this point, we as humans should collectively come to a realization that preventing future generations and discontinuing the species should be our final goal- as this will redeem the species from existence and consciousness (and hence suffering and despair).

This is certainly one of the first systematic and ideological attempts to elucidate a logic for antinatalism. This system, as most German Idealist systems tended to be, is wrought with overmined and reified concepts such as "Will", "Idea", "Absolute", etc. However, the logical thread need not be thrown away with the overwrought concepts that come with it. His three points above, and Hartmann's insistence that one day our pursuits will dry-up in a species-wide realization of unsatisfactoriness is intriguing. Ironically, in this vision of the future, the "progress" of technology and science will simply lead to more realization that all pursuits are in vain and that life is unsatisfactory as a whole. The final overture of humanity will be to collectively end it so that future generations will spared its existence.

1.) Does Hartmann have some cogent insights in his conclusions?

2.) Will our species, at some point, get to a place of realization that all pursuits are in vain and that life is unsatisfactory?

3.) Will we collectively decide to discontinue the species at some future point, when we have exhausted our pursuits of happiness?

4.) Is the world ironically moving towards an era of exhaustion with existence by our rapid advancements in technology and science?