When Unusually Rapid Improvement Becomes Usual


	When Unusually Rapid Improvement Becomes Usual

Silkweaver

6-19-2008 7:28 PM

434 views

tags:

aging, accelerating change

Silkweaver says:

Given the existing pressure on such social programs as Social Security and Medicare, I believe one implication of this “unusually rapid improvement” is that these systems will need to be radically overhauled in order to survive this new demographic reality.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/f97e5db7-ee8a-4000-a2af-c38f33a68021/B5F6380A-4331-43B9-A311-0E5F19A928C5/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual" href="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual" style="font-size: 11px;">www.memebox.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.memebox.com/img/F119BDD9-BCCD-4570-8F87-43054EBF121F" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual">It was reported last week that <A title="US life expectancy topped 78 years " href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080611/ap_on_he_me/med_life_expectancy" linkindex="147" set="yes">US life expectancy
topped 78 years</A> as a variety of diseases – including heart
disease, diabetes and flu – decreased this past year. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual">More interestingly, life expectancy – which has been increasing
about two or three months from year to year – jumped an impressive
four months this year. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual">It was “an usually rapid improvement,” but I’d like to argue
that such rapid improvements will become “usual” for the
foreseeable future.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual">If one tracks the amazing rate of progress in
biotechnology, genomics, stem cell research and nanotechnology; it
is hard – barring a devastating calamity that kills thousands or
millions of people – to envision how life expectancy will do
anything but continue to increase at an accelerating rate.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/623-when-unusually-rapid-improvement-becomes-usual">It seems only prudent, therefore, that we should at least begin
preparing for life expectancies in the neighborhood of 100 within
the next few decades.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/B5F6380A-4331-43B9-A311-0E5F19A928C5/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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