A French woman, age 122, recently died. She was the oldest known woman alive, but scientists now think we can and will live much longer. In 1990, there were 95,000 centenarians in the world. In 2015, there were 450,000. By the year 2100, scientists predict there will be 25million centenarians! In fact, the first 150 year old human is probably alive today.
There are many reasons why people are living longer, but I am more interested in what society is going to do with all these old people. Who will care for them and how will this affect society? It is a huge problem.
Why does an organism get old and die anyway? Not all organisms do. Nothing in biology indicates the inevitablity of death. Microbes have been dug from beneath the earth that have been alive for 100 million years. A grove of aspen trees in Utah has been alive for 14,000 year, and the hydra, a type of jellyfish, does not appear to age and can revert to juvenile stage, then mature and revert again, potentially forever.
Medical science has increased lifespan throughout the world and will continue to do so. But what are we going to do with 25 million people worldwide who are 120 years old? It's a good question to contemplate as we age and understand the challenges for society that an aging population creates.
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