The Anti-Shuffler or the Sheffler in a Different Version

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I'm going to read a quote from Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia, which I've never mentioned it before on e-conduct. We shed as we pick up like travelers who must carry everything in their arms. And what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march, but there's nothing outside the march, so nothing can be lost to it.

Suppose all of humanity was infected by a virus that left us all infertile--no one will come along after us. How would you react to such a world? Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago says she would be filled with despair. But why does this seem worse than our own inevitable deaths? Callard speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the meaning of life, and what exactly about the end of humanity is so demoralizing. The conversation concludes with a discussion of whether humanity is making progress.