Policy makers across the industrialized world are staring down the barrel of a gun: the growing retirement age population, and the shrinking birth rate. They see the “old age dependency ratio” with dread because they project current rates of senior disease and disability, and related medical and nursing costs, and they don’t see how welfare systems will survive.
But there is an answer, and it should be obvious, since senior disability rates have been plummeting. When seniors stay healthy and vigorous they can continue contributing their lifetime of accumulated skill and experience to society, without driving up nursing or healthcare costs, or becoming dependent on loved ones. If medical therapies could be developed which slowed the rate of aging, and the development of disease and disability, we may be able to slip past the demographic transition in economic strength, and greater health and longevity for everyone. This is the promise and challenge of the “Longevity Dividend.”
Join us in Chicago on July 23rd for a day long seminar with leading experts on the politics, science and political economy of longevity - including Jay Olshansky and Aubrey de Grey - to help build the campaign for an intensive international research program on anti-aging medicine. (The seminar will take place the day before the three-day gala Transvision 2007, with keynoter Ray Kurzweil.)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Chicago Fairmont Hotel (same hotel as Transvision 2007 which will take place the following three days)
Chicago, Illinois
Agenda:
8:30am-9am Registration & coffee
9am-Noon Political Economy of the Longevity Dividend
Jay Olshansky Ph.D.
Additional Speakers TBA
Noon-1:30pm Lunch
1:30-5pm Building the Campaign for the Longevity Dividend
Aubrey de Grey Ph.D. “Arguing the Scientific Feasibility of Anti-Aging”
Nick Bostrom Ph.D. “Answering the Philosophical Objections to Longevity”
James Hughes Ph.D. “Building Coalitions for Anti-Aging Science and Medicine”
Additional speakers TBA
Audience The targets for this event are:
- scholars and journalists interested in the future of aging and healtcare
- legislative aides and policy makers considering Longevity Dividend as a policy program
- pro-longevity, health care and senior activists interested in building the Longevity Dividend campaign
Admission: $150/person, $75 for students
(For now, checks can be sent to “IEET” c/o James Hughes, William 229B, 300 Summit St., Trinity College, Hartford CT 06106. We will shortly have up a Paypal link.)
Aubrey de Grey Ph.D.
Stuart Jay Olshansky Ph.D.
IEET Blog