In Drooling on Your Shoes or Living Long and Prospering? Joel Garreau posits four lifespan possibilities for the year 2030. These are, A) Small Change, a time when progress moves along without much of a lifespan change; B) Drooling on Their Shoes, when human lifespan, but not healthspan, is increased– leaving folks to live longer, miserable and more expensive medically-challenged lives; C) Live Long and Prosper, when one can envision living to 150 years of age thanks to remarkable and affordable medical advances; and D) Immortality, once the speed of technology surpasses the speed of aging, which does not appear to be too far off. Consideration of these prospects is meant to invoke better preparedness in having public policy, society and the economy more consistently aligned with what the future might bring. Coefficacy between forecasted longevity and socioeconomic frameworks will be considered at The Future of Longevity, an event being held in Washington D.C. on October 4, 2013, hosted by Future Tense (a partnership of Slate, New America Foundation and Arizona State University). Additional event and registration information is available here.
Joel Garreau is Lincoln Professor of Law, Culture and Values; Director, The Prevail Project: Wise Governance for Challenging Futures; and Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.