WGS 2016: Could 100 Truly Be the New 40?

• Physical and mental enhancements could see humans working until the age of 200
• Futurist says notion of retirement to change dramatically
• Fundamental shift to take place towards career planning

Dubai-UAE: 11 February, 2016 – Today’s children need to prepare for a world where they could have up to 40 jobs and 20 different careers and work until the age of 100. Rohit Talwar addressed the notion of retirement and the effect of increased life expectancy on governments, the job market, policies and laws on the final day of the 4th World Government Summit in a session entitled “100 is the new 40”.

During his talk, Talwar explored the social and economic impact of human longevity and what governments should do to adapt to this new future.

Rohit Talwar is an award winning global futurist, CEO of Fast Future for Research, and specialist advisor on the future of government, the impacts of rising life expectancy, the future of work, long-term policy, business transformation, disruptive strategies and radical innovation.

The global thinker gave audience members a glimpse into the future in which people could live not only to the age of 90 or 100, but even to 200. Talwar stated: “Age extension is big business. Physical and mental enhancements could see us working until we are 200.”

With exponential advances in the medical field and quality of life, average life expectancy is increasing by three to five months every year. It is therefore expected that an average human being can live and work more than one hundred years by the end of this century.

Talwar said: “The idea of living to over a hundred means that we need to change our entire notion of retirement and we are probably going to have to alter structures so that people work for a few years, retire for a few years, and then work again for another few years — that is assuming that the job numbers remain the same.”

Talwar further asked the audience to consider: “What if it were suddenly normal if only 30 to 50 per cent of us worked, because technology had reduced jobs, or we worked less hours so we wouldn’t be bored out of our brains. Indeed, when would we retire and how would we finance pensions?”

He noted that in the future, general societal attitudes would require retuning, in terms of respect for the elderly and career planning. The futurist spoke about the changing nature of career aspirations, claiming that there will be a fundamental shift in the ways humans think and behave. Children in particular would face accelerated learning, meaning educational institutions would need to shift the focus to teaching problem solving skills in addition to traditional subjects, in order to accommodate the constantly evolving job environment.

Concluding the session on a humorous note, Talwar joked: “If you lived until 200, who would want to enter into a 120 year-plus marriage contract, in which we have to divorce every 30 years? How would we deal with this?”

The World Government Summit attracted more than 3,000 personalities from over 125 countries, and 125 speakers in over 70 sessions. The attendees included VIPs and senior experts from the public and private sectors globally, ministers, decision makers, CEOs, innovators, officials, experts, entrepreneurs, academics, and university students. A number of initiatives, reports and studies were launched during the summit and throughout the year. The summit concluded today (February 10) at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.