There's a book by PD James, Children of Men. And then there's a great movie from 2006 with Clive Owen by Alfonso Cuaron called Children of men. They're both they're both really good. But something to have in common is this sort of conceit that it would cause a widespread despair, apathy and kind of erosion of like all social institutions of trust. The all all three of those people that is both the philosopher, the filmmaker and the novelist seem to agree that the knowledge, this knowledge would be devastating to us. Even though it wouldn't be a knowledge that you're going to die any sooner than you would have. So it's surprising that this knowledge would
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.