4 ms·

A significant part of my identity is in my body. I am an athlete: I am a skier, a runner, a biker, a swimmer, a disc golfer. I am someone who works with his han

A significant part of my identity is in my body. I am an athlete: I am a skier, a runner, a biker, a swimmer, a disc golfer. I am someone who works with his hands: I am a programmer, a carpenter, an electrician, a painter, a mechanic. But I expect many of these physical abilities to degrade as I age. It is sometimes emotional to realize I will never again best some of the personal records I set in college athletics, but I can still enjoy the activities and work towards self-improvement in other areas. But yes, there is little I fear more than a degenerative mental disease. Both my maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather have Parkinson's, and there is a significant genetic component. It's very hard to steel myself against the potential dementia.

nine_k 10y ago
What good are your excellently developed periphery devices if the mind can't properly control them? They are as good as gone, except for maybe a little muscle memory for simple motions. But what good is the retained ability to perfectly hit the keys if the ability to remember a melody or formulate source code would be lost? But being a programmer is likely a sort of defense against Alzheimer's: straining your brain, by writing code or playing scrabble or solving puzzles, is said to resist the onset of it somehow.
- munificent 10y ago
  > What good are your excellently developed periphery devices if the mind can't properly control them? What good is a mind if you don't have peripheral devices to produce output from it?
  - nine_k 10y ago
    Also yes. One should better keep both sides in order.
- XorNot 10y ago
  This is actually completely false. There's no evidence that brain games or intellectually rigorous activities provide any benefit in preventing any neuro-degenerative disorders. The only benefit has been that people who do these things tend to have it detected early, when some treatments can help delay, but not prevent the onset.

nine_k 10y ago

What good are your excellently developed periphery devices if the mind can't properly control them? They are as good as gone, except for maybe a little muscle memory for simple motions. But what good is the retained ability to perfectly hit the keys if the ability to remember a melody or formulate source code would be lost? But being a programmer is likely a sort of defense against Alzheimer's: straining your brain, by writing code or playing scrabble or solving puzzles, is said to resist the onset of it somehow.

munificent 10y ago
> What good are your excellently developed periphery devices if the mind can't properly control them? What good is a mind if you don't have peripheral devices to produce output from it?
- nine_k 10y ago
  Also yes. One should better keep both sides in order.
XorNot 10y ago
This is actually completely false. There's no evidence that brain games or intellectually rigorous activities provide any benefit in preventing any neuro-degenerative disorders. The only benefit has been that people who do these things tend to have it detected early, when some treatments can help delay, but not prevent the onset.