The word ‘disruptor’ has gone from describing a naughty school kid to being a compliment of the highest order, and arguably the biggest buzzword of the 21st century. Businesses are all looking for the next disruption – whether they want to be the catalyst for it, or simply lessen the impact when it inevitably hits. Unfortunately, the tendency to focus on what’s on your own horizon rather than keeping an eye on all 360 degrees means we’re often blindsided by what ends up rocking the boat.

Take Nokia. The Finnish company was king of the mobile space, and initially a leader in the smartphone space. But they failed to realise the threat posed by Apple and Google – because why would a phone division be worried about what a computer business and a search company were doing?

Now you’re likely reading this on either a phone powered by iOS or Android, while Nokia are trying to capture the ‘irony’ market by re-releasing the 3310 (complete with Snake!).

The next disruption that could throw your business or entire industry into turmoil is likely to come from the most unlikely of sources – and while prediction is most certainly a mug’s game, there’s a something just over the horizon that’s set to affect more than just business. We’re on the verge of disrupting life itself.

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Science, technology and progress are redefining what being human really is. Things once considered impossible are being challenged – things that go beyond our basic fundamental beliefs.

Take for example being able to fly: this was a mechanical development, we didn’t grow wings. But technology’s impact on our lives is changing the way we look at ourselves as human beings and causing our interactions with the world to change.

Yes, this all sounds very pie in the sky, but a fundamental question is being tackled at the moment which is set to very tangibly change what it is to be human.

Solving ageing

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes”. This centuries-old saying is set to be challenged in the years ahead, with some of the best minds on the planet directing their energy towards ‘solving ageing’.

And because virtually nothing gets done without a significant amount of money being spent, those multimillionaire or billionaire types in Silicon Valley are looking to get it done.

In 2014, Google set up Calico (California Life Company), which aims to combine cutting-edge IT advances with medical research to “devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives”.

Then there’s the The Palo Alto Longevity Prize, which wants to “nurture innovations that end ageing by restoring the body’s homeostatic capacity and promoting the extension of a sustained and healthy lifespan”.

The difference is that where Calico is aiming to tackle the issue in-house and by developing partnerships, the Prize is outsourcing the problem. Hedge fund manager Joon Yun has put up $1 million, challenging scientists to push the generally accepted human age limit of 120 years.

So you have the best minds in the world, combined with some seriously impressive budgets – the Prize’s $1 million might not sound like much, but Yun has flagged the possibility of putting up more money in the future, while Calico is backed by one of the wealthiest companies on the planet.

You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself, but a meeting of brains and bucks the likes of which are being put behind the ageing issue suggests we’re going to see lifespans dramatically increase.

In fact, Dr Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist who is the chief science Officer and co-founder of the SENS Research Foundation, has famously stated that the first people to live for 1,000 years are already alive.

And while Dr de Grey has been ridiculed for his prediction, well, not many people believed John F Kennedy when he said in September 1962, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade”.

It’s also important to note that the aim is to tackle ageing – as in, to see people maintain an optimum level of health for longer in their lives – not to see our nursing homes and hospitals full of frail, infirm people who are merely living much longer.

The idea is that if you’re healthy for longer, it will result in a longer life.

What’s this got to do with us?

“So what?” I hear you ask. “Even if these crackpots are somehow correct, what’s it got to do with marketing?”

In short, everything.

Looking at the immediate picture, how is this going to affect the healthcare industry? Or superannuation? And with an increasing number of able-bodied people in the world, will we see a boom in more physically demanding activities?

Every industry in the world will be dramatically affected, and so their marketing will have to shift in a major way.

But where it’s easy to think about marketing just in terms of aiding the selling process, the reality is we’re first and foremost communicators.

While everybody will play a role in defining this new world, we as communication agents will be at the forefront, because every piece of communication that comes out is in reference to a cultural key that people understand.

We all leverage common grounds of understanding so people can interpret our messages. It’s a way of using a shortcut to make the message more effective. But if things are fundamentally challenged, the way we talk about things needs to change, because absolute values, beliefs and truths are being challenged.

As marketers, we are going to need to get our heads around what this means, and how quickly it’s going to filter from the early adopters to the masses.

Successful marketers will be those who are among the first to understand how a mass extension of life expectancy will change the way we see the world and how we interact with it, and thus will become precursors of philosophy.