ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an unfashionably optimistic answer to the question of what we may require of the present generation on behalf of future generations. The only conception of morality that does not give rise to serious difficulties when it is applied across generational lines is libertarianism. Scientific and technological advances have produced a treasure-trove of new resources and techniques with which to satisfy our needs and wants. And the “rampant individualism” that seems to have become so unpopular has encouraged individuals to use these new resources and techniques in a myriad of novel and productive ways. Future generations are thoroughly dependent on us; the means they will have to build decent lives for themselves are exactly the means we leave to them.
