Is living longer really a good thing for all of us?
Does longevity science actually do us any good?
Older, not necessarily wiser.
Hi! I’m back. I didn’t mean to take a small hiatus over the summer, but it happened. Turns out a full-time job and two kids out of school isn’t conducive to a regular newsletter. I’ve learned that lesson. (Will I manage to pre-write enough issues to see me through the next school holidays? Almost certainly no, I won’t.)
I turned 45 this summer, and the photo above is from my birthday. I spent weeks looking online for something pink and red before finding this dress. I don’t know why that exact colour combination appealed to me (a marketing strategy by someone, no doubt), but I wanted something that very clearly and obviously celebrated the extraordinary gift of having made it this far, more or less intact.
Longevity, as you have no doubt noticed, is big business these days, but I can’t help seeing this as a paradox which few others seem to have noticed. Lots of demographers worry about “the grey tsunami” - an offensive description for what is really just a group of older people - which they suspect will overwhelm health services with an ageing population that needs more and more support.
At the same time, an awful lot of younger people are trying to stave off death as long as possible, with supplements and biohacks and protocols and anything else the wellness industry can convince us might be a way to purchase eternal youth. And I understand the urge to live forever, I really do.
But aren’t the two things connected?
