Global Aging: An Integral Problem of the Future. How to Turn a Problem into a Development Driver?

This chapter analyzes the process of global population aging, which has a significant impact on all areas of public life in the twenty-first century. Already today, in almost two dozen countries of the world, 20% of the population is over 65 years old. According to the WHO, the 60+ age group in the world already exceeds the number of children under 5 years of age. At the same time, by 2050 the number of 65+ will exceed the number of adolescents and young people aged 15–24. The influence of the population aging process on various areas of social activity will be determined by its scale and depth, i.e. by the possible demographic structure of the future society. At the same time, the ability of modern society to cope with increasing risks associated with this process is problematic. Among the risks and problems associated with population aging, one finds economic slowdowns, pension crisis, problems of care for the growing numbers of disabled and frail people, maintaining the financial savings of the elderly, the issue of ageism, and the vulnerability of the elderly during periods of crisis and pandemics and consequently maintaining life expectancy as well as a stable democracy and even world order. These risks and problems are of particular concern given that by the mid-twenty-first century, two-thirds of people over 65 will live in middle and low-income countries. Moreover, aging will affect even the currently poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa with young populations. In view of this, the problem of social security and health care for the elderly is becoming increasingly acute and requires the adoption of proactive measures. The problem of population aging is given insufficient attention by such international organizations as the UN and WHO; in general, studies of this issue are limited in the public sphere as well as in scientific discourse. However, even now the, global aging is an extremely important problem and, we suppose, it will become the most crucial problem in the future. So, insufficient attention to it is threatening societal tensions, crisis, and intergenerational conflicts as well as political and social instability. In the present chapter, we approach this process from the point of view of the transition from perceiving it as a problem to considering it as providing new opportunities associated with the presence of worldly wisdom and experience in a more mature and older generation. Today, concrete measures must be taken in different spheres, and special long-term programs must be adopted to create a higher health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for the older generation and to combat the widespread stereotype of the end of life and the feeling of doom. Grinin et al. point out the importance of technologies, the development of which can be stimulated precisely by the process of global aging and the need to increase life expectancy. As a background for the forthcoming technological wave (which we denote as the Cybernetic Revolution), global aging may create an acute demand for labor-saving technologies, as well as give a powerful impulse in the field of medicine. Progress in the latter will help to extend the working age and improve health-related (biological) quality of life.