The future of ageing — what will growing old be like in 2076?

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The name's Bond, Alan Bond. Millionaire businessman, America's Cup winner and, oh yeah, con man.

Mark Dreyfus (0:16)

Bond cooked the books of Bond Corporation.

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Claire Nicholls (0:37)

Imagine Australia in 50 years. The population is pushing close to 40 million and 18 million of us will be aged over 65

Today on Big Ideas, what will ageing be like in the year 2076?

Robin (1:00)

Hello, I'm 76 I've thought about a robot washing me and taking me to the toilet.

I for one, who have lived on my own for a very long time, am not looking forward to it one minute's worth.

Jenny Waycott (1:17)

So one that I like to talk about is a device called LEQ. It's a smart speaker, social robot hybrid, but it looks a bit like a desk lamp. So it glows and it swivels its head. It will prompt you to talk to it throughout the day.

Claire Nicholls (1:37)

It's Claire Nicholls filling in for Natasha Mitchell on Big Ideas. And on this International Day of Older Persons, a look at the future of ageing, the possibilities and the perils. At the National Ageing Research Institute Annual Summit held in Narm, Melbourne, you're going to hear from Professor Jenny Waycott, the Deputy Head of Research in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, whose work investigates the use of social robots in aged care.

Crunching the data in ageing populations in Australia, especially around inequality and diversity, is demographer Dr Tim Adair from the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who in November 2025 was appointed a Special Envoy for International Human Rights, who is advocating for the protection of children, older persons and others, and Professor Andy Philp, Head of the Healthy Ageing Research Program at the University of Technology Sydney, where he leads the Biology of Ageing Laboratory in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation. Our guide is the ABC Broadcaster, host of the Friday Review and author of A Question of Age, Women, Ageing and the Forever Self, and A Wisdom of Age, Lessons on Living from Our Wise Elder Women, Jacinta Parsons.

Jacinta Parsons (3:12)

Today, I want you all to imagine it's the year 2076

Australians are living longer, having fewer children, and our society looks very different from today. But what's the biggest change people in this room will notice immediately if they woke up in that future Australia? Now, Professor Andy Philp, for the first time in history, scientists are talking not just about living longer, but about slowing aspects of ageing itself. How different might our lives be in 2076 if today's ageing science succeeds?

Andy Philp (3:53)

That's a great question. Thank you. Yeah, I think a number of levels.

You're right, we really are at a sort of revolution, I think, in terms of, one, our interest in how we measure our age and how we measure our biology, but then how we interface with that technology. So, the way I see it is that we are actually looking to predict and prevent rather than wait till we get sick, and that's one of the biggest changes I'd see in 50 years' time.

We can do that with our blood detection and how we can actually measure our predictors of ageing. And to me, I think that becomes a mainstream thing that we can go and get ourselves done at a clinic or a GP where we can actually look at predictors of ageing. And I think the science behind that is accelerating a dramatic rate. AI helps us to do that with huge amounts of data points and a quick way of doing that. And then we've actually become to a point where, and I see this in 50 years, that you can actually intervene earlier and prevent, or you can actually get to a point where you can rejuvenate and replace that tissue. So the technology is incredible. And I think what the problem at the moment is, it's very, maybe elitist and it's very expensive and it's very hard to get to the general public. To me, the change then becomes the efficacy and the affordability and how you can actually get that to the general public.

Jacinta Parsons (5:12)

Is this going to be the thing that 2076 shows us, is that great divide between the haves and the have-nots when it comes to healthy ageing?