The Promise and Challenges of Post Ageing

We are not convinced that the inflection point of optimal ageing is the ultimate culmination and apogee of all that we have done—and will do—in the domain of gerontology and geriatrics. We are most certain that a burgeoning inflection point has arrived and made an impact by challenging our received views within the “ageing enterprise.” We submit that the GRIN technologies will disrupt and flip on its head each and every previous inflection point and its attendant prevailing view. In the past, ageing has been the optic by which we reflect on decline and mortality, problem-solve the symptoms of senescence, enact policies to buffer the demographic transitions, and promote lifestyles, attitudes, diets, and outlooks that will reframe the later years into civic engagement, wisdom, and legacy. But that was then, and this is now, when we will have to make room for this new perspective of “post ageing”, even the radical versions, in our classrooms, conferences, and publications. Despite the heated rhetoric and polemics that have been associated with “anti-ageing medicine” and human life extension, the intersection of technology and ageing is substantial and significant.