As a world population we're staying alive for longer - a phenomenon brought about by dramatic advances in medical science, public health and education. But these additional years are some of the most complex we've ever faced. The older we get, the greater our susceptibility to pathologies that afflict us simultaneously, and are hard to control. The impact of these conditions threatens to turn the latter years of our lives into physical and emotional battlegrounds that see us fighting against our bodies to stay alive, or against the state for the right to die on our own terms. Our increased life expectancy is matched by a decline in birth rate - with fewer children born we're less able to support a demographic of older financial dependents. In many areas care services are under-funded, understaffed, and failing the people they exist to serve. Older societies are also causing profound cultural shifts: intergenerational tensions, sexual revolutions and shifting perceptions of the ways we live and die. In Weapons of Reason's New Old issue we set our sights on the sprawling issue of ageing, a problem that will affect us all medically, economically, spiritually and emotionally.