Would You Sit There and Read Catcher in Their Eye?

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"I'm sort of inclined to find it somewhat plausible that it wouldn't. And if you were that person, or thought you were. Would you make your bed?" he asks. "Would you make the world attractive in case someone came along after us right"? He suggests museums would be created to preserve what we had achieved as a species and prepare for life recreating itself over millions of years.

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.