John provides a metaphor for the interaction of generations as a rope, a bunch of strands bound together, overlapping, and reinforcing each other. What do we owe the generations with which we share the planet? Ken introduces the guest, Norman Daniels, professor at Harvard.

What is a generation? Daniels points out that "generation" is ambiguous. One sense of the word means an age group. Another sense means a birth cohort, i.e. a group of people born around the same time. John asks if our basic ethical questions are concerned with what different age groups owe to each other? Ken and Daniels think there are two questions, what different age groups owe to each other and what birth cohorts owe to each other. Daniels suggests figuring out how to treat each age group fairly, then adjusting depending on the needs of the individual birth cohorts. If there is a large generation followed by a smaller one, retirement benefits and other things may need to be scaled down for the older generation to accommodate the disparity in size.

年轻一代应该牺牲多少来为老一辈提供福利?丹尼尔斯认为，我们需要思考如何分配金钱，使我们在整个生命过程中获得最大的幸福。我们如何看待年龄组之间的义务问题?人口老龄化会影响代际义务吗?丹尼尔斯认为这影响了年龄组的问题。我们永远不会知道会有几代人出生。我们怎么能亏欠不存在的人，我们都见不到。我们对祖先有什么义务?他们都死了。如果没有后代，我们的生活将如何改变? Ken thinks the meaning of our lives is intimately bound up with the expectation that there will be future generations.

• Roving Philosophical Report(Seek to 04:20): Amy Standen interviews several people about what they expect of descendants they won't meet and what they feel they owe their ancestors.

• Sixty Second Philosopher(Seek to 49:45): Ian Shoales gives a brief history of family values, from the Greeks and classical literature to the modern family and Star Wars.