Forever Young

WE’RE GETTING CLOSER TO THE DAY WHEN SCIENCE MIGHT MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO ACTUALLY STOP HUMANS FROM GROWING OLDER. ARE WE READY FOR A POST-AGING WORLD?

- Eric Wilson

Is this the moment when we all stop getting old?

It’s a strange question yet a valid one to ask in this beauty-themed issue, given not only advancements in cosmetics promoted as anti-aging but also new scientific thinking that treats aging as a disease—one with a cure just around the corner. Peter Pan, it seems, might finally realize his wish.

All summer long my social-media feeds were awash with images of gray hair and wrinkles from people who posted photos of what they or their favorite stars might look like decades from now using FaceApp’s old-person filter. Lady Gaga came out something like Lauren Bacall, Timothée Chalamet bore an uncanny resemblance to Barry Manilow, and Paul Rudd, who hasn’t aged in decades, looked exactly like Paul Rudd. It was all very amusing but also indicative of a sea change in how people view aging today—that is to say, some of us now see growing old as a novelty.

That’s partly because many people take better care of themselves through diet, exercise, and responsible lifestyles and therefore look younger later in life. Plastic surgery and injectables have played a role in the increasing prevalence of unripe façades too, for better or worse. But what if in our quest to look forever young we achieved the real thing, the ability to stop aging altogether?