ABSTRACT
Would it be good to live forever? We all agree that certain conditions need to be met. For example, ageing needs to be stopped. There needs to be space, and food for all of us. But some have argued that there cannot be, for us, a desirable version of immortality. The immortal life, according to Bernard Williams, would soon become unbearably boring. Samuel Scheffler argues that such life would, from the outset, be trivial. Both agree that immortality threatens meaning. The various counter-arguments have some weight, but fail decisively to rebut the sceptical view. In particular, they neglect, often, to take seriously enough the concern with meaning. So, in order to meet these difficulties, I develop what I call the Moving-Envelope model of an immortal life. Suppose that we have limited powers of both memory and imagination. So then it is as if we are always located within a confined envelope of time. The boredom and triviality problems will both be relieved. In fact, we live forever, but it doesn’t seem as if we do. Meaning seems to be, and arguably is, restored. And, of course, these powers already are limited. The solution here doesn’t require gross adjustments to our psychologies. That argues in its favour.
