Creating a New Map of Life

The “New Map of Life” Project Longevity changes everything

Longer lives present one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century and one of the greatest opportunities. To fully reap the gift of longevity and the real possibility of living well to the age of 100 and beyond, transformative change is needed from early to late life. Investments in science and technology are essential. Just as essential are investments in novel societal supports, policies, and norms that will enable people to optimize century-long lives. New models of education will be required, including but extending beyond traditional formal education. The concept of “work” and “retirement” must be redefined; the nature of family will include multiple generations; we need to promote practices that keep people healthy and socially engaged; we must better appreciate the link between early and late life; we need new policies for health care and financial security; re-design where we live, work, and travel; and we need to conceive of ways that people can best accommodate the rapid increases in the speed of new technology transfers. Importantly, these supports, products, and services must have wide reach in the population so that the majority of people – not just the privileged few – reach advanced ages physically fit, mentally sharp, and financially secure.

Why do we need a new map of life?

Demographic changes alone demand attention. World population, currently 7.6 billion, is projected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030 and 9.8 billion by 2050. California population will be 51 million, an increase from the current 39 million. The three-stage linear model of life – education then work followed by retirement – won’t work. The new life course will need to be flexible and have multi-stages with a variety of careers and transitions. Fluid life patterns will emerge as longevity promotes a redefinition of time. Seismic societal changes will be needed to the underpinning structures in areas such as education and learning, health, employment, housing, socioeconomic policies. And these changes must be addressed through the sociological lens of diversity and inclusion, ethnicity, the family and intergenerational relations.

How do we start the conversation?

The premise of this project is that we cannot achieve what we cannot envision. The complexity of the change we need must not be underestimated. We need to collaborate in a more networked, interdisciplinary way to have the greatest impact and identify solutions. What tools, models and frameworks do we need to transform communities, states and countries to benefit from longevity? How do we create a mindset for the new map of life?

Questions we will ask:

• Changing the narrative: How do we create a new narrative, imagery and language that values people at different stages of life – moving away from current obsolete language? How do we rid chronological age from the life script, removing age stereotypes and benchmarking by age?

• Education and learning: How do we give children the skills to survive in an age of rapid knowledge transfer and equip them for a new world of work? What are the needs for life-long learning? What is the role of intergenerational learning? How do we re-design education so that longevity is on the curriculum? (UN figures June 2017 https://www.un.org/development/…/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html )

• Economy/financial policy: What is a productive long life? What new models do we need to finance the longer life? What is the role of universal income? How can people best build financial assets? How does family governance change when families come to have four and five generations alive at the same time? How do we bridge the income divide – poorer people have lower life expectancy.

• Communities: What do longevity-friendly communities look like and how do we pursue the development of livable cities and aging in place? What is the role of libraries? Is there a place for more innovative social entrepreneurship? Value of supporting intergenerational relationships and programs. What do we expect for civic engagement?

• Media: What roles can news media, journalists and writers, advertising and entertainment industries play in helping the redefinition of life course and rethink images of aging? What campaigns are needed to stimulate public dialogue?

• Education and Work: How do we break the traditional model of education to support new and different models of life-long learning. How do we re-think work and changes in HR policies and practices? How do educators and employers respond to the demands of an age diverse student population and workforce? What are the new norms for using talents of older people? How is retirement re-cast and the role of encore careers developed? How is voluntary work valued and promoted? Where are the skills shortages?

• Health: How can research inform and stimulate personal health choices that enhance 100-year lives? How can we develop personal resilience – plasticity, adaptability, flexibility, willingness to engage with the new lifespan? How to harness the benefits of the health and wellness revolution – medicine, genomics and technology?

• Business: How to develop products and services which are relevant across the full life span?

• Legislation and policy: how to support fluid life patterns which are not bounded by age prescribed in legislation? If the timing of key life milestones (start of work, marriage, home ownership, starting families) are changing and eroding, do policies need to reflect the new milestones?

The Project

Our goal for the five-year project is to generate significant changes in how we collectively think about and talk about living long lives. We will see a different narrative being played out in the media. We will see progress being made at the federal, state and local levels in creating the “policy infrastructure” to support living longer lives and living them differently. We will see changes in the way individuals, educators and employers think about education, jobs, work and the role of work. We will see businesses creating new products and services to support and enhance this new view of the life course.

The Plan Stage 1: Drawing the Map We will start the conversation by convening a small group of experts who are distinguished scholars and leaders in their fields of education, health and public policy, government, economy, finance and social policy, science, technology, work and employment, housing and communities, transport, media and advocacy, corporate and financial services, philanthropy and not for profit sectors to envision an ideal century long life. The aim is to address key questions that lead to consensus-building and concrete next steps for future action. Our goal is to create a template for developing a “new map of life” that could be used by other countries, regions or communities to make a map relevant to the dynamics of their population.

Stage 2: Identifying new models, solutions, and needs Following the meeting and the initial synthesis of ideas, we will constitute seven (possibly more) working groups on central topics identified in the meeting. Groups will meet for two years. Each group will be led by a full-time post-doctoral level researcher who is advised by a small group of researchers, policy makers, and stakeholders who have deep expertise in the subject area. The working groups will delve deeply into their respective areas to consider policies, technologies, norms, and scientific advancements needed to optimize functioning in very long lives. We anticipate that the foci of groups will include education, work, finance, health, social engagement, intergenerational relationships, as well as ones that focuses on human interactions with the physical environment (climate, resources) and overarching working groups that focus on culture change and communications. The task of each core will be to develop a detailed and idealized map from birth to death that maximizes the quality of life in the core area along with models that can help to achieve them. Finally, the groups will identify policies, interventions, and social norms that can correct negative trajectories when they present. That is, each core will identify on ramp/off ramp policies, norms, etc., that can help to remedy problems before they spiral downward. SCL will convene these scholar-led groups on a bi-weekly basic so that the group leaders interact across the core areas and get feedback from other groups. Quarterly, SCL will convene the leaders along with the experts to garner input from the broader group of advisors.

Stage 3: Taking it Global Next, we will convene longevity leaders around the globe, in regional meetings in Africa/Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to share best practices, and expand the thinking globally. While different regions have different demographic profiles and different social constructs by mid-century all regions of the world are aging, less developed countries. Our aim is to have “New Map of Life” models that are relevant to the diverse populations around the world. In this phase of the project we will join with leaders in Europe, Asia, North and South Americas to articulate region – and in some cases state – level changes that support long life.

Stage 4: Communications Essential to achieving our goal will be the need to actively and strategically communicate this vision for a new life course. We will need to enlist the support of the private sector, non-profits, regional and community leaders, in presenting this to the general public. The New Map of Life will turn us into catalyzing agents in creating a new model that will support century long lives

Stage 5: Monitoring We will define ways to monitor progress and create a repository for best practices that can be shared with communities of all sizes to develop their own regional maps. We will begin to instantiate the changes needed to support long life.

Sponsorship Funding Funding will be used for o Convenings (5 worldwide convenings), Communications, working groups, materials, travel, staff

https://longevity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2018/06/New-Map-of-Life-06_15_2018.pdf

Read the Final Report