Patrick Cox: Life Extension, Culture, and Politics

Anti-aging technologies will have consequences few have yet pondered.

by Patrick Cox
October 8, 2015

Life extension technologies have been so successful that we are only just beginning to understand their impact. Longer life expectancies are the most obvious consequence, but reduced birthrates are also a consequence of living longer. Though the linkage between these two phenomenon is not well understood, it is statistically unassailable and therefore the subject of considerable academic research. There is another consequence of life extension that’s been pondered far less. I’m talking about the increase in the average age of populations as people live longer and have fewer babies. Just like each of us individually, society is getting older.

In 1950, just before I was born, the average age of an American was about 28 years. Today, it’s about 40. This alone ought to make us think. At 28, I was quite different from my 40-year-old self. Similar changes in median ages are going on across the globe, as this chart from the UN Population Division shows.