If we’re serious about building societies that can thrive in the century of longevity, we have to stop treating relationships as an afterthought and start seeing them as infrastructure. Because the question isn’t whether we’ll live longer, it’s what kind of life those extra years will hold, and whether we’ll face them together or alone. 

When did we start confusing independence with freedom?  

Nic Palmarini, Director of the UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), has been asking this question for years.“ Somewhere in the last half-century,” he says, “we were sold the lie that independence equals freedom. As our cities grew denser, our lives grew thinner, more connected online, but less connected to one another. But interdependence, that’s what makes us human. It should be celebrated, not treated as weakness.” He leans forward. “We’re being sold meditation apps for our lonely apartments while our homes turn into digital bunkers, connected to everything, connected to no one.” 

It’s a vivid image and one that lands hard. Despite the illusion of constant connectivity, we are living through a profound epidemic of disconnection. “The science is shouting the obvious,” Nic says. “Your body literally works better when you’re with other people at the cellular level. This isn’t philosophy. It’s physiology.” 

Connection as medicine 

The longevity market is booming, pills, powders, and promises of eternal youth but the most powerful life-extending force remains profoundly human. “Human connection,” Nic says, “cuts your risk of death better than any supplement you can buy.” 

Decades of evidence back it up. People with strong social ties live longer, recover faster, and stay healthier across their lifespan. Social isolation, meanwhile, increases mortality risk as much as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. It raises inflammation, weakens immunity, and accelerates ageing itself. 

“Loneliness isn’t just a feeling,” says Professor Lynne Corner, CEO of Voice. “It’s a health determinant. When we ignore it, we’re ignoring one of the biggest public health issues of our time.” But loneliness, she stresses, is not an individual failure. It’s systemic, baked into how we live and work. “It’s the design of our societies,” she says. “Our cities, our schedules, our technologies all make it harder for people to connect.

Reclaiming the human right to be together 

At NICA + Voice, connection isn’t a side project. It’s the foundation of everything. “We’re not in the business of selling miracle cures or quick fixes,” Nic says. “We’re rebuilding public spaces where people actually meet. We’re fighting for policies that give people time to nurture real relationships. We’re demanding respect for our fundamental need for each other.” 

He’s blunt about what’s at stake. “The future isn’t living to 100 while staring at screens in glorious isolation. The real luxury of the 21st century is quality time with actual human beings.” He pauses, then adds: “This isn’t about warm, fuzzy feelings!  It’s about reclaiming a basic human right: the right to be together, in an age that’s turned even friendship into a commodity.”  

Launching a Global Conversation 

That’s why Voice is launching a Global Conversation on Friendship and Connection because it’s time to put relationships at the heart of the longevity agenda. “Meaningful relationships are the most powerful predictor of longevity science has ever discovered,” says Professor Lynne Corner. “Connection isn’t decoration. It’s life-giving.”  

As Nic Palmarini reminds us, belonging and togetherness aren’t soft ideas, they’re the architecture of human resilience. They are the foundation stones of what he calls the Republic of Longevity’s Ministry of Togetherness, a society that recognises our need for one another as a vital sign, not a weakness. In this vision, friendship, connection, and shared purpose are not afterthoughts; they are public health priorities, the social medicine that sustains both longer lives and better ones. “We can’t build a longevity society if we only design for time,” Lynne adds. “We have to design for togetherness. That’s what turns longer life into better life.” 

The urgent next step 

As we finish our conversation, both leaders come back to the same truth: the fight for connection is not sentimental, it’s structural, biological, social and essential. Every policy that ignores it, every design that isolates, every product that replaces rather than restores human contact, chips away at the very thing that keeps us alive. 

If the 20th century was about adding years to life, the 21st must be about adding life to years and that life begins with each other. Because the evidence is overwhelming and the urgency is real, human connection isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the next frontier of health, the engine of longevity, and the measure of how well we’re truly living.