I just would like to comment on the medical part, because I’ve always worked in health care…here in the US, there is already a big gap between health & life expectancy among different socioeconomic groups–those times are already here! As the author above says, the impact is definitely intergenerational.

(http://www.cdc.gov/omhd/About/disparities.htm).

Sometimes there is definitely a lack of access to high-tech care…but more importantly, I think in the U.S. these disparities in health are often because of lack of access to basic care: prenatal care, well-child visits, preventive care among adults. Another huge factor is access to mental health care.

Even more basic than that, a lack of access to good housing in a safe neighborhood, healthy food, preschool programs such as Head Start, etc.–the very, very basics–have a huge impact on differences in health outcomes.

I know we humans can never stop innovating & discovering, because it is our nature & we don’t want to go backwards to some kind of Dark Ages, but the biggest challenge to the future of healthcare is how to provide clean water, healthy food, basic health care, family planning, etc., to everyone, with the smallest impact on the environment. It is a huge challenge! Maybe the question is not so much how to prolong life, but how to improve the general basic quality of life, so there are less marginalized, desperate, & forgotten people?

thanks for a great blog! :)