The Future of Aging

Why and How We Should Extend Human Longevity
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-0-674-30367-6
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 235 mm

An eye-opening argument that greatly increasing our investment in human longevity is both a moral and an economic imperative.

In 1880, life expectancy in Europe and the United States was around forty years. Today, it is nearly eighty. But while the average lifespan has nearly doubled, our health span has not. Age-related medical conditions—from cancer to heart disease to dementia—still arise at roughly the same points in people’s lives as they did in the Stone Age. Trillions have been spent searching for treatments, but that is not the only possible path. Bioethicist Raiany Romanni-Klein, working with economists Jason DeBacker and Richard W. Evans, proposes a radical new agenda: dramatically accelerating efforts to tackle the root cause of age-related illness—namely, biological aging itself.

Drawing on original economic modeling and interviews with over a hundred scientists, The Future of Aging suggests that delaying the effects of aging would not only directly improve people’s lives but also generate massive financial gains, dwarfing any amount spent on the necessary research. Slowing down aging by just one year, for example, would mean 1.7 million more Americans alive by 2050 and a boost to US GDP of over $400 billion a year, around eight times the current annual budget of the National Institutes of Health.

Today, the NIH spends a mere 1 percent of its budget on aging science, while for-profit firms peddle unproven supplements and wellness retreats. The Future of Aging argues that this neglect is a moral and economic failure of historic proportions—and calls for scientific and market reforms to extend healthy lifespans and ease the burdens of care for everyone.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Romanni-Klein, Raiany

Evans, Richard W.

DeBacker, Jason

Weitere Mitwirkende

Pinker, Steven

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Public Health, Gesundheitsmanagement, Gesundheitsökonomie, Gesundheitspolitik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftstheorie, Wirtschaftsphilosophie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Ethik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Zellbiologie

Über Autor(innen)

Pinker, Steven
Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and The Better Angels of Our Nature, among other books.

Romanni-Klein, Raiany
Raiany Romanni-Klein is founder and CEO of the Florens Institute, a nonprofit devoted to questions at the frontier of ethics, science, and technology. A faculty member and advisor in bioethics at Harvard Medical School, she helped design and launch the $101 million Healthspan XPRIZE.

DeBacker, Jason
Jason DeBacker is Professor of Economics at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina.

Evans, Richard W.
Richard W. Evans is Senior Economist at the Abundance Institute. Previously, he was Director of the Open Source Economics Laboratory at the University of Chicago.