Are humans ready for longer lives?

THE first thing that came to mind when I was invited last week to an event named SWITCH was Nintendo's latest portable console, the Nintendo Switch.

As I looked the event up - while imagining Mario playing tennis in the Nintendo game Mario Tennis Aces - what came up was quite something else.

SWITCH was the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology, an innovation conference which took place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

There, I attended a panel discussion titled Sustaining the Human Race through Innovative Technology. It was held as part of Empiricon, a partner event of SWITCH, and organised by local events organiser Tabula Rasa.

The panel - moderated by The Business Times' startups correspondent Jacquelyn Cheok - delved into technologies that can preserve and extend the human life. It also saw a lively debate on whethe…