Four For Friday | January 17, 2025
LF156 | PROSPR aims to help Americans live longer, better, Accenture's new AI report, surfers fighting fires in LA, loneliness proteins + Stanford's AI research assistant
Welcome to Looking Forward’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week, together with a bonus: AI Tip of The Week. Enjoy!
ARPA-H introduces a healthspan prize
The US’s ARPA-H health research program has created a new initiative around increasing lifespan. The PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program aims to generate new therapies that extend healthspan and prevent age-related diseases. It’s going to focus on rapid in-home data collection and an innovative clinical trials model to identify biomarkers of aging, which should in turn make it easier and quicker to make products that reduce health costs and improve quality of life.
The So What? A bold idea by a valuable government program - I hope it survives Trump…
Accenture’s latest AI report: 4 key themes
Accenture has dropped their ‘2025 Tech Vision’ and it has four major themes:
The Binary Big Bang: Generative AI is infiltrating enterprise technology and rewriting software development.
Your Face, in the Future: As AI homogenizes customer service, brands scramble to maintain their distinctiveness.
When LLMs Get Their Bodies: Language models are turning specialized robots into versatile generalists, upending industrial automation.
The New Learning Loop: When AI permeates organizations, it amplifies both human and machine capabilities—a feedback loop that reshapes corporate hierarchies and how people learn.
The So What: With the blizzard of content on AI, you could do nothing else but read AI reports all day, so key takeaway from this is the phrase, Big Bang. Fundamental change is here.
Surfers are leading community brigades to fight Malibu fires
The gathering climate emergence is upending and creating new social structures - and especially in the recent LA wildfires - shining a harsh light on a lack of local community infrastructure or resilience strategies.

This piece (h/t Sarah B) shows how Malibu's surfers are spearheading "Community Brigades" to combat devastating wildfires. These civilian groups train with the LA Fire Department, providing crucial support during frequent fire events. It was set up after the 2018 Woolsey Fire and is likely to be much in demand, and replicated in other place.s
The So What? A nice example of using local resources to build new models of distributed resilience.
Loneliness proteins
A study reported in Nature used the UK Biobank to show plasma proteomic signatures associated with social isolation and loneliness.
The research identified numerous proteins linked to inflammation and antiviral responses. Significantly over half of these proteins were prospectively associated with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and mortality. So in other words, a clear pathway for how social relationships and connections influence health outcomes.
The So What: More proof - if it were needed - on the importance of social connections, and this time with a pathway and theory of change for how it matters.
Bonus: AI Tool of the Week
Stanford Storm - create well-researched AI powered articles on topics of your choice.
That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.
- Stephen