Book countdown - Longevity Imperative

I wrote this book for multiple reasons. One motivation is I want to elevate a longevity agenda up there with AI and climate change as a major trend we need to adapt and adjust to if we are to secure a healthy future. It just doesn’t get the attention and focus it deserves and I want this book to change that.

One reason it doesn’t get attention is that most debate focuses on an ageing society and the rising number of older people. That’s invariably a negative narrative focused on individual and macroeconomic decline. So, a second aim is to replace this ageing society narrative with a longevity society perspective.?The real challenge is not to adapt to a rising number of older people but instead adapt to the longer lives we now face by changing how we age. An ageing society begins when you have lots of people aged over 65. A longevity society by contrast begins when you have lots of people who can expect to live beyond 65. The Longevity Imperative outlines the changes required if we are to achieve a three-dimensional longevity dividend – a life that isn’t just longer but healthier and more productive for longer.

There have been numerous great books written on different aspects of longevity (and apologies to the many who I don’t mention below. There really are so many great books!). For instance, there have been several on developments in geroscience (e.g. David A. Sinclair A.O., Ph.D. “Lifespan”, Andrew Steele “Ageless” and Nir Barzilai “Age Later” or Peter Attia recent “Outlive”). There is my own book (The 100 Year Life) with Lynda Gratton on how to rethink the life course and our careers, Laura Carstensen 's inspiring “A Long Bright Future” pointing out the possibilities longer lives offer, and Dr. Joe Coughlin 's insightful “The Longevity Economy” emphasising how there being more older people will shape the economy and how firms misunderstand what that means.?Then there are numerous books on humanity’s long-lasting search to achieve immortality, such as Steven Cave’s "Immortality" and a litany of charismatic figures who have died searching for its secrets (David Boyd Hancock’s "Mortal Coil").

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What there hasn’t been (to my knowledge) is a single book that tries to integrate all these different perspectives and themes into a single coherent framework. That is what I have tried to do with The Longevity Imperative. It is a book that covers a huge range of topics – from demography, medicine and science through economics and finance as well as culture, psychology, philosophy and politics.

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At the book’s heart is a simple logical argument :

• For the first time ever in human history the young and the middle age are likely to become the very old
• We fear getting old – we worry about outliving our health, finances, skills, relationships and sense of purpose
• So what do you do now in order to age well?

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A first longevity revolution is coming to an end, now that the majority of children born today in high income countries are expected to live into their later 80s or early 90s. So begins a second longevity revolution focused on changing how we age. We need to focus on constructing a society that prepares us for longer lives and ensuring that the quality of life matches its newly found quantity. We need to find a way to be evergreen.

What that entails and what the consequences are is the subject of The Longevity Imperative.

Part I outlines the longevity agenda by answering the following questions:

• What has happened to life expectancy, what is likely to happen and what constitutes the longevity imperative?
• How do we age and what can we do to age better?
• Why is the evergreen agenda so important and why it signals a new era for humanity?

Part II addresses the major changes required to deliver the evergreen agenda.

• How do we change our health system and our own behaviours to ensure longer lives are healthy ones?
• How do we pay for longer lives and deliver an economic longevity?
• What changes are required in the financial sector and your own behaviour to remove the risk of running out of money?

Part III focuses on the required shifts in our beliefs, culture and psychology.

• How do we find purpose in this longer life and how do we adapt our psychology and culture around ageing and drop ageist assumptions?
• How do we achieve intergenerational fairness?
• What are the major roadblocks to a successful evergreen society and how do we overcome them?
• What steps should you take to further your own evergreen future?

For decades, governments and policymakers have been aware that a major demographic transition is underway.?But the ageing society has diverted attention from the most pressing problem - how we adjust to living for longer. It is time to embrace the evergreen agenda now.

To pre-order The Longevity Imperative click here for the UK and here for US.