Wellness

If you explained the concept of a gym to someone from a hundred years ago, they would look at you like you’re crazy. Because humans have evolved to sit around all day, we now have dedicated spaces that you pay money to access, so you can go and labor – given that it’s not built into your day.

We now have a multi-billion dollar industry dedicated to our physical wellness. The level of sophistication and understanding we have is truly astounding. We have highly abled and knowledgeable fitness instructors, nutritionists, dieticians, personal trainers, and physiotherapists to help us achieve our goals in terms of physical wellness.

We have what looks like heavy machinery to train specific muscles in the body, have a stronger-than-ever understanding of what certain foods do to our bodies, and even technology that tracks how we eat and sleep.

In the future, we envision a world where wellness is taken just as seriously. We see a world where there are life coaches, therapists, and other professionals who specialize in our human well-being. We see a world with dedicated spaces where you go to recharge your emotional and mental wellness – and to see this become as commonplace as going to the gym.

Instead of living in an overstimulated, dopamine-driven wired society, the world will be redesigned for joy. We see a world where happiness is not only valued, but taken seriously – with data-driven insights and advice to help us curate environments, relationships, and lifestyles that bring us the most joy.

Happiness will become a sophisticated science – and in time, humans will be happier than ever.

Longevity

With advancements in technology, there is no limit to what we can achieve. According to the book Outlive by Peter Attia, every year that you’re alive, science adds 3 months to your lifespan; with the advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence, we can soon expect an extra year of life for every year you’re alive.

In the same way that the average life expectancy increased dramatically over the past century, we see a future where life expectancy will increase even more. Eventually, we envision living in a world where people live to be 200 years old and beyond – it’s just a matter of living long enough to be around when science makes the breakthroughs it will. With this in mind, there are a few key technologies we expect to rise in popularity.

Hyper-Personalized Nutrition

The days of a one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition are long gone. We envision a world where we have an intimate understanding of our own unique nutritional needs – and the technology available to match them. With the ability to scan your body, or test your blood and saliva, we can understand exactly what nutrients and vitamins your body needs to stay healthy.

We imagine that you walk into a restaurant, and you can order a meal that specifically caters to your needs. This means that you can get the exact nutrition profile you need, with no margin for error. We imagine a world of customized diets – where food is personalized just for us, so we get exactly what we need to stay healthy.

This won’t just help people live longer lives – it will help them live more vibrant ones too!

With sharper insight into our diet, and more sophisticated technology to enable us to make the most of it, we can start to unlock a whole new level of health and wellness. We could see reductions in aging-related diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and cancer. Diabetes could one day be a disease of the past, as could other primarily diet-induced illnesses. And with personalized nutrition plans tailored specifically for each individual – taking into account their age, lifestyle, and medical history – we can start to truly maximize our quality of life as we age.

Imagine a world where 50 is the new 30, and it’s normal to live past 100. The data from our personalized nutrition and wellness regimes will help science uncover even more information on what it takes to stay healthy – paving the way for a whole new level of lifestyle/prevention medicine.

A Shift Towards Preventative Medicine

We’ve all heard about the vitamin vs aspirin analogy in the context of the problem your product solves — one product is “nice to have” and the other addresses a searing customer pain.

Unfortunately, our healthcare system takes this a bit too literally. We wait until you get sick to sell you the solution, rather than keeping you healthy in the first place. And when cancer is a subscription business (and patients have to keep coming back for treatment), why have a cure?

To go from problem-solving to prevention, we need to change the financial incentive structure of medicine. We envision a world where diseases are no longer treated after the fact – but prevented in the first place. With AI-enabled predictive diagnostics and preventative care, doctors can better anticipate problems that may arise with their patients, and provide proactive treatments or lifestyle changes to prevent disease.

We hope to see a world where real-time health monitoring is the norm. We see a future where technology is used to prevent disease through early detection — so if a problem is discovered, it can be treated quickly and effectively.

Genomics & Regenerative Medicine

In the future, genomics and regenerative medicine will play a key role in human longevity. Genomics is the study of DNA and its impact on our health. Through this, we can better understand the genetic causes of disease – and create treatments that target these diseases at the molecular level. We imagine a world where diseases like cancer are easier to diagnose, treat, and prevent with targeted therapies.

Regenerative medicine is a field that focuses on restoring, maintaining, and improving the health of individuals through regenerating cells and tissues. In the future, humans will become like cars — we replace the parts that don’t work — organ transplants will turn into stem cell replacements. We envision a world where tissue regeneration and 3D printing can be used to repair damaged organs or create new ones – allowing us to live much longer lives.

Final Thoughts…

As humans continue to experience a longer lifespan and healthspan, we will have the opportunity to experience more of this world. Our “childhood-like” state will be longer, as we leisurely spend more and more time learning, exploring, and creating. Similar to what we’ve seen in some Scandinavian societies, it will be normal for people to have professor-level education and to continue their education into their 30s. We’ll be able to explore different cultures, learn new things, and develop relationships with people from all around the globe.

What will you do with your extra time?