100+

Have you ever wondered what your life could look like if you lived not just to eighty, but to one hundred and fifty—with decades of vibrant health and clarity ahead of you? In 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, technology analyst Sonia Arrison boldly argues that humanity is approaching a radical turning point: science and technology are no longer merely extending life span—they are engineering the human body itself to defy aging. She contends that this transformation will redefine not only medicine but also families, economies, and faith. Living to one hundred plus years is not a fantasy—it’s a social, ethical, and technical revolution already underway.

The book’s central claim is simple but audacious: the same process that gave us antibiotics, sanitation, and vaccine-driven longevity is now entering its most transformative stage. Through breakthroughs in biotechnology, stem cells, tissue engineering, genetic therapy, and even synthetic biology, humanity is reverse-engineering aging. Arrison proposes that these scientific advances will soon double healthy life expectancy, unlocking lives of 150 years or more—forcing civilization to rethink retirement, education, reproduction, and spirituality.

The Aging Revolution

Arrison begins by tracing the journey from humanity’s early struggle against infectious disease to the modern confrontation with aging itself. She shows that for millennia, most gains in longevity came from reducing infant mortality, not prolonging later life. But today, advances in regenerative medicine are finally targeting the cellular and molecular damage of aging directly. Scientists are creating organs in labs, repairing genes, and using stem cells to regrow tissue—turning science fiction into everyday clinical reality.

From Survival to Enhancement

In Arrison’s view, we are shifting from a medical model focused on survival to one aimed at enhancement. The body has become both the subject and object of engineering—the “greatest project of all time.” The book explores breakthroughs like 3D organ printing (pioneered by companies like Organovo), regenerative stem-cell therapies for blindness and spinal injury, and gene editing tools like zinc finger nucleases that rewrite DNA to cure AIDS and cancer. These innovations form what Arrison calls the dawn of health extension—a future where humans repair themselves from the inside out.

Why Longevity Matters Beyond Medicine

But 100 Plus isn’t merely about biology; it’s about culture. Arrison suggests that longer, healthier lives will reshape families, work, and faith as deeply as the printing press reshaped society. What happens when people marry or have children at seventy? What will retirement mean in a century-spanning life? How will religions that promise eternal life adapt when science offers near-permanent life here on Earth? Arrison explores these questions across eight chapters, blending scientific case studies with economic modeling and philosophical inquiry.

Living Ethically in a Longer-Lived World

Critics argue that this quest for longevity is an act of hubris—an attempt to usurp nature or God. Arrison disagrees. She frames longevity not as a rebellion against nature but as humanity’s most natural act: solving problems through innovation. She draws upon thinkers like Francis Bacon and modern scientists like Aubrey de Grey (creator of the SENS model to repair cellular damage) to show that extending life is a moral imperative, not a threat. To deny life extension when it can reduce suffering would be ethically wrong, she argues, echoing futurist Peter Thiel’s foreword that calls aging “the great enemy of the world.”

A Blueprint for Humanity’s Next Chapter

Arrison offers a comprehensive roadmap: from the history of longevity myths (Methuselah, vampires, and alchemists) to the latest military-funded regeneration projects and cutting-edge gene sequencing. She shows that biology is becoming a software system that scientists can now reprogram—an idea championed by biologist Craig Venter, whose mapping of the human genome and creation of synthetic cells exemplify this convergence of life and code. As the cost of sequencing genomes plummets, personalized medicine will become as cheap and routine as smartphone software updates.

Ultimately, 100 Plus asks us to reimagine everything we think we know about human limits. The book argues that living to one hundred plus years isn’t just science—it’s destiny. In the coming age of longevity, our societies will undergo upheaval in economics, morals, and meaning. And if Arrison’s forecast is right, the first thousand-year human may already have been born.

Core takeaway

Longevity is not an indulgent dream—it’s the logical next step in evolution. Science is becoming engineering, biology is becoming technology, and humanity is beginning the ultimate redesign project: itself. The implications reach far beyond medicine, touching who we marry, what we believe, and how we measure a meaningful life.

Imagine suffering a disease so severe that doctors say amputation is your only option. Then imagine walking out of the hospital weeks later—with tissue regrown from your own cells. In 100 Plus, Arrison highlights real cases like Claudia Castillo, a Spanish mother whose diseased windpipe was replaced with one grown from her own stem cells, and Deepa Kulkarni, whose amputated fingertip regrew after experimental treatment with pig-cell extracellular matrix. These are not distant miracles—they are milestones of regenerative medicine reshaping human possibility.

The Era of Tissue Engineering

Leading the charge is Dr. Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, whose lab has replicated over twenty organs including bladders, blood vessels, and bone. Atala’s work—growing replacement bladders for children using their own stem cells—proved that custom organs can be functional and immune from rejection. (In comparison, historian Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus notes that human biology is becoming editable like code—Arrison’s examples show this has already begun.)

Arrison calls these technologies the start of a “hardware revolution of the body.” Instead of treating symptoms, medicine will rebuild organs from scratch, extending health spans rather than just life spans. In this process, scientists are discovering that humans heal more like salamanders than machines—scaffolds made of extracellular matrices encourage natural regrowth rather than scarring. The U.S. military, through its $250 million Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM), is funding breakthroughs to regrow muscles, digits, and even limbs for wounded soldiers.

Printing Life Itself

Perhaps the most futuristic technology Arrison explores is organ printing. Using 3D bioprinters, scientists arrange living cells instead of ink onto biodegradable scaffolds to create organs layer by layer. In 2010, the company Organovo printed the first human blood vessels, proving that replicating human tissue isn’t just possible—it’s scalable. Dr. Craig Kent hailed this as “exciting progress toward functional arterial grafts.” With each success, medicine edges closer to on-demand body repair—a future where your organs can be replaced as easily as hardware parts.

Learning from Nature

Dr. Stephen Badylak and colleagues at the McGowan Institute are studying animals like salamanders to understand regrowth at its purest form. Their experiments using extracellular matrix have already replaced muscle for Iraq war veteran Corporal Isaias Hernandez, who regained his ability to walk after losing much of his thigh to combat injuries. These stories showcase that life extension isn’t just adding years—it’s restoring vitality.

When read against science-fiction classics like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, these experiments carry striking irony: centuries ago, the idea of growing body parts was a horror story. Now, it’s an ethical mandate. Arrison’s case studies prove that what once symbolized hubris has become the natural extension of human compassion—the power to heal by creation rather than replacement.

Core takeaway

Regenerative medicine marks humanity’s transition from repairing life to redesigning it. Stem cells, scaffolds, and bioprinters have turned the body into editable code—the first tangible step toward defeating aging.

If tissue engineering rebuilds the body’s hardware, genetics and stem cells rewrite its software. In this section, Arrison explores how scientists now manipulate genes and cells to reverse disease and extend life, challenging the old assumption that aging is inevitable. “People have always thought that, like a car, our body parts eventually wear out,” says Dr. Cynthia Kenyon, whose experiments proved otherwise. By altering one gene in tiny worms, Kenyon’s team doubled—and later sextupled—their lifespans. In human terms, that’s five hundred healthy years.

Turning Skin into Blood—and Beyond

Arrison recounts breakthroughs at McMaster University where researchers transformed ordinary skin cells into blood cells—no embryos needed. This discovery means that patients could one day have transfusion-ready blood made from their own tissue. Dr. Mick Bhatia’s team predicted that “clinical trials could begin as soon as 2012,” paving the way for custom-made cells to repair virtually any part of the human body.

Stem Cells: Controversy and Promise

Through both embryonic and adult stem cells, scientists are curing blindness, spinal injuries, and heart disease. In Italy, researchers restored sight in burn victims using stem cells from patients' own eyes. At UC Irvine, Dr. Hans Keirstead’s rat experiments demonstrated paralyzed animals walking again after receiving human embryonic cell therapy—a leap so profound it led to the first human trials in Atlanta. (Comparable philosophies to Arrison’s appear in Regenesis by George Church, which explores biology as programmable material.)

Gene Therapy: Rewriting Faulty Code

Another pillar of longevity is gene therapy, which inserts healthy DNA to replace defective genes. Arrison shares the success of nine-year-old Corey Haas, cured of hereditary blindness by injecting a corrected gene carried by a harmless virus into his eye. “I can play like a normal child now,” he told reporters. While early attempts had fatal setbacks, precision tools like zinc finger nucleases now allow targeted edits—scientists can switch off HIV’s entry genes or repair cancers at their genetic roots.

Making Aging Flexible

Arrison emphasizes that aging itself is plastic—a dynamic, controllable process. Genes like daf-2 and enzymes such as telomerase regulate longevity. When researchers in Spain increased telomerase while preventing cancer-triggering mutations, mice lived 45% longer. Even more promising, compounds like resveratrol and rapamycin can mimic the effects of caloric restriction—activating survival genes long known to extend health span in monkeys and worms. These discoveries hint that we may soon swallow pills that delay aging as reliably as we take antibiotics to fight infection.

From gene editing and cell programming to pharmaceutical mimics, Arrison’s chapters build to one conclusion: aging isn’t a fate. It’s a system error that humans can debug.

Core takeaway

Gene therapy and stem cells prove that life’s limits are software-defined. Once biology becomes information, longevity becomes a matter of engineering—not destiny.

One common worry about radical life extension is that it might exhaust the planet’s resources. In Mother Nature and the Longevity Revolution, Arrison systematically dismantles that Malthusian fear. She shows that throughout history, humanity’s creativity—not scarcity—has driven survival. Population growth has always been offset by innovation, from GPS-guided tractors to genetically resilient crops. Technology, not limitation, is nature’s partner in sustaining life.

Rewiring the Planet

Arrison begins with farmer Michael O’Connor, who developed precision GPS farming systems that increased yields while cutting waste. His technology made pesticides, fertilizer, and fossil fuels far more efficient—proof that human ingenuity continually expands Earth’s carrying capacity. The lesson: longevity does not mean overpopulation; it means smarter management.

Defying Malthus

Contrary to Thomas Malthus’s prediction that population would outstrip food supply, Arrison shows that the opposite happened. Food production soared through innovation: Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug’s dwarf wheat saved over a billion lives during the Green Revolution. Prices of raw materials, which Malthus predicted would skyrocket, have actually fallen as new replacements—like fiber optics instead of copper—prove that ideas, not molecules, are humanity’s ultimate resource.

Cleaner, Greener Generations

As societies grow richer and older, they also become cleaner and more eco-conscious. Arrison applies Maslow’s hierarchy to environmentalism: once people satisfy basic needs, they care about the planet they leave behind. Economic studies show that as income rises, pollution first increases, then declines sharply—the famous Environmental Kuznets Curve. The result: longer-lived, wealthier societies invest more in sustainability because their citizens literally plan to live to see the long-term effects.

Innovation as Ecology’s Ally

From algae-based biofuels funded by ExxonMobil and Craig Venter to nanotech solar cells predicted by futurist Ray Kurzweil, Arrison shows how technology turns conservation into enterprise. Even military and industrial investments in synthetic biology aim to recycle waste and capture carbon. A longer-lived population does not consume blindly—it innovates to sustain its own future.

Arrison concludes that fears of overpopulation are misplaced. The more time we have, the more incentive we have to protect the Earth. Life extension, paradoxically, might be the ultimate environmental strategy.

Core takeaway

Longevity is sustainability. The longer people plan to live, the more invested they become in caring for each other, their economies, and the ecosystems that support them.

Aging science doesn’t just challenge biology—it challenges philosophy. In her chapter on The Longevity Divide, Arrison confronts critics like Leon Kass and Francis Fukuyama, who argue that fighting aging is unnatural or hubristic. Their fears echo ancient myths, from Icarus’s fall to Faust’s pact. Arrison flips the argument: extending life isn’t arrogance—it’s the most humane form of progress.

Nature vs. Humanity

Kass, who chaired President Bush’s Council on Bioethics, warned that longer lives would make humans less “human.” Arrison responds that human nature is defined by curiosity and the drive to improve. Vaccines, sanitation, and prosthetics have not made us less human—they have made us more compassionate survivors. “If curing disease is noble, curing aging magnifies that nobility,” she insists.

The Fear of Playing God

Opponents like Stanford’s William Hurlbut caution that gene editing might create monsters, much like Frankenstein’s creature. Arrison reminds readers that the same moral panic once surrounded anesthesia and organ transplants. She argues for measured optimism—the “precautionary principle versus innovation.” Overcaution, she warns, risks leaving people to suffer when solutions exist.

Eugenics and Equity

Some fear longevity tech will widen inequality, creating genetic rich and poor. Arrison counters with history: every new technology, from electricity to smartphones, began with the rich but soon reached the masses. Innovation diffuses faster each generation. The wealthy are not villains—they fund the R&D that eventually democratizes health.

Redefining Human Rights

For Arrison, longevity is a right no less compelling than free speech—the right to live healthily. Denying access to life-extension therapies is morally akin to withholding cures for disease. She argues, “It is wrong to work against making people healthier,” echoing ethicist John Harris’s claim that refusing life extension when possible is a form of harm. Living longer does not betray nature—it uplifts it.

Through these debates, 100 Plus offers a philosophical scaffolding for longevity ethics: prudence balanced with progression, reverence balanced with responsibility. Humanity’s instinct to improve is what makes us human—not our capacity to die.

Core takeaway

Questioning the ethics of longevity reveals that preserving life is not arrogance—it’s empathy. The moral destiny of humanity is not to fade—it’s to flourish.

What happens to human relationships when people remain fertile, vibrant, and wise for more than a century? In her chapters on The Changing Face of Family and The Financial Implications of Longevity, Arrison explores how our social structures—marriage, parenthood, education, work, and religion—will be reengineered as life expands. Longer lives mean longer stories, forcing humanity to rethink the pace and purpose of connection.

Reinventing Parenthood and Marriage

Arrison draws fascinating examples: a 70-year-old Indian woman giving birth via IVF, women freezing their eggs for later, and labs culturing human follicles for future pregnancies. With life expectancies near 150, having children at seventy will no longer appear extraordinary. As fertility technology erases age barriers, family structures will diversify—more siblings born decades apart, more blended generations under one roof.

Adultescence and Lifelong Education

Living longer also means taking longer to grow up. Arrison highlights a new life stage—“adultolescence”—between adolescence and adulthood, marked by experimentation and self-definition. If youth now lasts longer, so will education. In a 150-year life, individuals may pursue multiple degrees or careers, turning midlife crises into midlife reinventions. (Peter Drucker similarly predicted lifelong learning as the defining skill of post-industrial citizens.)

Economics in an Age of Longevity

Economically, longer lives challenge retirement and savings. Arrison draws on economists like Gary Becker and Julian Simon to show that health creates wealth—each year of life extension could add 0.5% to GDP growth. Work will become cyclical, not terminal. Retirement at sixty-five will make as little sense as childbearing at sixteen. People may have several careers and retire more than once.

Faith and the Search for Meaning

Perhaps most provocatively, Arrison asks what happens to religion when humans begin to defeat death. Drawing on scholars like Rabbi Elliot Dorff and philosopher Calvin Mercer, she suggests that traditional promises of afterlife will lose traction. Instead, spirituality may evolve into what she calls “earthly transcendence”—finding meaning through creativity and compassion rather than mortality. In short, longevity doesn’t abolish religion; it transforms it.

Extended life will change every corner of civilization—from when we love and learn to how we worship and work. The longer we live, the more human we become.

Core takeaway

Longer life will re-engineer family, ambition, and faith. Rather than ending human culture, longevity multiplies its possibilities.

In her final chapter, Leadership for a Longer-Lived World, Arrison steps beyond laboratory breakthroughs to ask: who will steer this revolution? The answer, she argues, lies in a new alliance between scientists, entrepreneurs, and cultural communicators—people she calls the salespeople, mavens, and connectors of longevity, adapting Malcolm Gladwell’s framework from The Tipping Point. Together, these agents make living longer an unstoppable social meme.

Salespeople: Framing the Dream

Media figures like Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Oprah Winfrey, and Dr. Mehmet Oz translate complex science into compelling stories, spreading the meme of health extension to millions. By putting stem cells and regenerative diets on prime-time television, they make longevity not just a scientific possibility but a personal aspiration.

Mavens: Collecting and Curating Knowledge

Visionaries like Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey operate as idea accumulators, synthesizing breakthroughs into blueprints. Kurzweil’s Singularity Is Near frames biology as information technology; de Grey’s SENS Foundation codifies seven pathways to defeat aging. Their obsessive data gathering fuels longevity as an intellectual movement.

Connectors and Philanthropists

Entrepreneurs such as Peter Diamandis (X PRIZE), Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison, and Sergey Brin transform ideas into funded projects. Diamandis’s $10 million Genomics X PRIZE accelerates genome sequencing, while Thiel’s investments in de Grey’s research and Singularity University make longevity commercially credible. Wealthy tech leaders—Google’s founders, Jeff Bezos, and Paul Allen—bring mainstream legitimacy to biotechnology, echoing their earlier revolutions in software and internet culture.

Creating Cultural Stickiness

Arrison argues that longevity ideas have achieved “stickiness” because they appeal both to reason and emotion. Living longer is an ancient wish wrapped in modern science, and Silicon Valley’s cool factor makes it aspirational. When Bill Gates says he’d now choose biology over software, and Jeff Bezos compares DNA engineering to creating life itself, the social terrain shifts—the “cool kids” of innovation are making immortality mainstream.

Policy and the Future

Arrison closes with a call to action: governments must increase funding for aging research and reform regulations so that anti-aging therapies can be approved rapidly. She warns that bureaucracy could stall progress the way early gene therapy did. To secure humanity’s health future, she urges “a unified global initiative to translate longevity findings into interventions.”

For Arrison, leadership means moral courage as much as technical ability—the willingness to fight for life itself. Her conclusion echoes futurist Peter Thiel’s foreword: “The time has come for death to die.”

Core takeaway

The longevity revolution won’t succeed through science alone—it needs storytellers, investors, and citizens who believe that extending healthy human life is the next great cause of civilization.