This piece from the Stanford Magazine demonstrates that mainstream thinking about age, retirement, social security schemes and healthy life extension is starting to move in the right direction. This author says "Eventually, we will figure out how to make people much healthier for much longer. I want to change the conversation. Right now, the conversation is about coping, and it should be about opportunity. We should think about [the gains in life expectancy] as a gift. How are we going to use it?" Biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey makes the case that "eventually" can - with public support and better funding - be within twenty years. Serious anti-aging research is a serious near future prospect.
Link: http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2004/julaug/features/aging.html