<p>Compulsory retirement is not merely the result of more solidaristic policies towards the final stages of life, nor solely a mechanism to enable the replacement of workers by those deemed more capable. In this conceptual analysis, it is argued that, as a capitalist and biopolitical phenomenon, compulsory retirement is embedded in broader strategies of governing labour that ultimately undermine the potential contributions of older individuals to critically interrogate the very idea of the future. This paper advocates for the abolition of mandatory retirement in professions characterised by immaterial labour—those centred on language, thought, affect, or interpersonal relations—for those who wish to continue working independently of financial needs, or other needs besides being fulfilled in working just for working. It is precisely because such individuals are closer to death that they may be uniquely positioned to engage with the future in its most intense and radical form.</p>