“It’s the idea that if everyone would just, in a one-time event, dedicate one percent of their net worth to life-extension science, that would be something like a trillion dollars- we would almost certainly be able to, in say ten to fifteen years’ time, conquer most diseases and probably eliminate human death itself.” Zoltan Istvan
The idea that by helping people live healthier and longer lives we can also greatly help the global economy is, I find, very intriguing. This is the thesis of Alex Zhavoronkov’s book “The Ageless Generation: How Advances in Biomedicine Will Transform the Global Economy”.
Recently, Stephen Euin Cobb, of the podcast series “The Future and You”, interviewed me on all things “Retirement Singularity”. We got into healthy life extension, technological disruption, life coaching and the impacts to personal finances.
In particular we discussed most of the themes inside the “End of Retirement As We Know It” report.
A new book entitled “Ageless Generation: How Advances in Biomedicine Will Transform the Global Economy” proposes at breakthrough solution to the approaching economic crisis. Namely, advance anti-aging and regenerative medicine and charge the cultural significance of “retirement”.
Essentially, Aubrey says that, while preventing aging may be possible in the future, the processes of aging are so complex, that this project will take many, many years. However, another approach that he promotes via his SENS organization is to develop therapies now to repair the damage that the processes of aging have produced in our bodies. This approach has the benefit of being do-able in our lifetime – and perhaps even within the lifetime of people currently as old at 70.
Saving a retirement “nest-egg” may be the wrong goal for retirement. Expanding healthy life spans require we “reframe” the notion of retirement.
The Global Future 2045: International Congress is approaching. But no need to wait as some great content from an amazing list of speakers is already on the site. Check out these excellent short clips from Ray Kurzweil, George Church, Peter Diamandis and James Martin
Is moving retirement age to age 70 the solution for retirement funding shortfalls? As we cope with people living longer and longer, still the acceleration of the rate of change is not appreciated. Moving retirement age to age 70 is an incremental idea couched in outdated assumptions.
Ray Kurzweil talks about how advances in technology are leading to radical life extension
One of the 6 Steps in the R.E.C.I.P.E. formula I discuss in my Retirement Singularity: End of Retirement FREE Report (coming out very soon) is the idea that we should have money set aside to pay for new medical treatments that are not available in our country and/or covered under medical plans (assuming we have a medical plan!).
One current example of this is stem cell therapy.