Epilogue

Let us suppose that some of the technologies described in this report will eventually work as well on humans as they do on mice. Imagine, for instance, that the average lifespan of people taking future anti-aging medications increases to 120, and that given proper lifestyles, these people can remain as fit as fiddles when they are 80, 90, or 100 years old. What would that change? 

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Surely a lot. For instance, it would change demographics. In fact, it would be demographics. Retirement ages would be presumably also be pushed back, but perhaps only for the ones who took the medications. Maybe more people would postpone the age where they got children even more than many already do – heavily frontloading their career first and then shifting their focus to building families. Perhaps more people would simply put their career on total hold while bringing up children; being confident that there would be ample time to catch up with work and savings later in life. It would probably also lead to far more people choosing multiple careers – there would simply be time for it. However, some people might respond in the opposite way and slow down their career effort in the conviction that there would always be another day after tomorrow.  

Prolonging lifespans might also make the world more peaceful, since older people typically are far less violent than the younger ones. On the other hand, during the initial period, where these medications would be subject to patent-protection and probably expensive, huge tensions might develop between people who could afford them and the rest. Would NGOs step in with money to give the poor longer lives, or would they be restrained by concerns about local overpopulation?  

For governments, there would be lots of other issues to consider. How would they generally address the issue that some of its citizens would remain fit for far longer than the rest? For instance, should people with a life expectancy of 120 still be able to retire at, say, age 60 or 70? Would governments subsidize the medication for their citizens on the basis that people taking it would be willing to postpone retirement?

Such questions are fascinating, but we still do not know if, or rather when, they will become relevant. However, what we do know is this: There will be a huge demand for any effective anti-aging medication. After all, most people want to stay fit and live longer. While there may be some initial skepticism regarding such interventions, just consider this: Today, people routinely get fillings in their teeth, hip and knee replacement surgery, heart transplants, hearing aids, artificial retinas, contact lenses, pacemakers, liposuction, hair transplants, plastic surgery, and Botox. We also eat genetically modified food, and despite initial fear and disgust, by now more than 500,000 children have been conceived in vitro.

And concerning messing with human genes, we routinely conduct genetic screenings of unborn babies, and we have already seen the first gene transplants in people with serious genetic diseases. Furthermore, the COVID-19 crisis has led to accelerated development of DNA- and RNA-based vaccines, which in fact amount to genetic modification of the patients.    

However, the plans to slow natural aging also tie in with much broader trends in our markets. As described brilliantly in the 2019 book More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources and What Happens Next by Andrew McAfee, rich nations have essentially been dematerializing since the 1980s. We get better physical products, but many of them are more compact than before, and they require fewer resources to produce and maintain than before. Meanwhile, much of the economic growth has instead come from services, and within those, from the provision of experiences, which is a rapidly expanding market. Interestingly, within these service and experience economies, one of the fastest growing products is the mental and physical improvement of human beings. In a way, we ourselves have become the product.  

To date, this has been delivered by a huge range of service providers, from fitness instructors to psychologists, couple therapists, nutrition counselors, mindfulness coaches, gurus, yoga teachers, cosmetologists, plastic surgeons, and various spiritualists, to name just a few examples. However, when it comes to enhancing ourselves, few offers could be more appealing than effective prevention of aging. For many of us, the most coveted product of the future is enhanced people. To those who share that desire, anti-aging solutions will be the ultimate products.