Radical future promises “new you” by 2020

In just fifteen years, today’s seniors and ‘boomers could be looking in the mirror and honestly wondering, “Who is that gorgeous creature”? Their reflection would reveal a perfectly shaped, healthy body, with natural hair color, wrinkle-free skin, and real teeth. Welcome to the radical world of 2020.

According to the pundits, impending convergence of nanotech, biotech, infotech, and cognitech will enable breakthroughs that improve health, extend lives; even re-define what it means to be human. Never before has civilization experienced opportunities to enhance human performance on such a scale.

This future is not so surprising considering how much we take for granted our current speed of medical innovations. Almost daily, we hear (or don’t hear) researchers make new discoveries, or begin clinical trials for a new therapy; but in the next fifteen years, breakthroughs will happen at even greater speeds. Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts we can expect more medical advances between now and 2020 than we experienced during the entire 20th century.

Dr. James Canton’s Institute for Global Futures forecasts a huge “health improvement” market in the next decade driven by seniors and ‘boomers who, according to Prophet of the Age Wave’s Ken Dychtwald, control a whopping $7 trillion of U.S. wealth.

Between 2010 and 2020, experts say, biotech and nanotech miracles will replace organs, muscles, bones; and eliminate suffering and deaths from cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses.

These advances will help ‘centenarians’, who have undergone medical rejuvenation, become the fastest-growing age group. These older citizens will capture our admiration, sharing their long life experiences without the physical handicaps placed on them in today’s society. By mid-2030s, forward-thinkers believe an indefinite lifespan, free from unwanted death, could become the norm.

Improving humans beyond what some consider “natural” promises to evoke controversy. Sparks will surely fly as we endow ourselves with bodies that resist degeneration, bones that replenish through self-assembly, and a lifespan approaching immortality.

Religions hold that death is inevitable and natural; that living a good life sends believers to an afterlife paradise, and memories of lost loved ones live on in the hearts of descendents.

Regardless of this controversy, demand from seniors and ‘boomers who believe that they deserve improved health, more happiness, and longer lives will drive this positive future forward – and it promises to become reality in our lifetime.

Many side with this optimism. Harvard’s Dr. Carroll Williams claims, “The day is not too far off when we will treat aging as we treat pneumonia”. Michael West, founder of Geron and Advanced Cell Research agrees, saying, “I would not underestimate the power of science and medicine to unlock the mechanisms of aging and provide humans with indefinite life span”.

Sixty Minute’s Andy Rooney once quipped, “A friend of mine said he was afraid he would die of cancer just before they discovered a cure for cancer. I’m afraid I’m going to die of death just before they discover a cure for death”.

Will this “magical future” happen? If today’s technologies continue to advance exponentially, the answer is a resounding yes. The choice of living hundreds of years in perfect health, instead of aging and dying may soon be within our grasp.

Dick Pelletier
Copyright 2002-2005 Betterhumans