The environment plays a huge role both during ageing and in relation to the
phenomenon of hormesis. In this chapter I discuss the impact of any stressful stimuli or
challenges originating from our environment, and expand the concept of hormesis to
take into account the environment in a wider sense. An enriched environment is taken
to mean an ‘information-rich’ habitat, including the immediate surroundings of an
organism. In the case of humans, these surroundings include not only the physical
aspects such as towns, natural landscapes and weather, but also social and virtual
elements such as online environments and digital relationships. The discussion lays the
foundations for understanding how enriched environments act as vehicles of
information which lead to biological modifications. These biological modifications
may then participate in a novel evolutionary event, which is the emergence of technoculture,
an amalgam of biology and technology. It would be unthinkable to consider
human ageing without referring to these new technological developments. Speculative
elements such the notion of the ‘noeme’ (a biological- digital entity), empirical
research, emerging research and other concepts are discussed within a mutuallyinfluencing
landscape, with the emphasis being on the biology of human ageing
Keywords: Cognition, Epigenetics, Environmental enrichment, Gut microbiota,
Indefinite lifespan, Internet, Molecular pathological epidemiology, Natural
environment, Noeme, Rejuvenation, r-k model, Social enrichment, Technoculture.
