5 ms·

No, old fart are like that because they now "have it figure it out" and are happy with they point of view. That's just how the brains work: it uses experience

No, old fart are like that because they now "have it figure it out" and are happy with they point of view. That's just how the brains work: it uses experience to create a map of the world, a paradigm. The older you get, the more experience you get, and the harder you can endure a paradigm shit. Renewing the populating, beside the absolute biological necessity (you are adapted to your environment now, but probably not to the one in the future) is the only way nature manage to balance experience and flexibility.

JohnDotAwesome 10y ago
> paradigm shit Still works.
- throwanem 10y ago
  Accidental brilliance, even.
  - sametmax 10y ago
    When you can't be brillant in any other way...
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Transcendendal excremeditation.
laumars 10y ago
Plenty of the older generation have adapted to paradigm shifts though. I mean we've seen enough of them in my generation alone: * the adoption of mobile phones - being able to contact anyone, anytime and at any place. This wasn't the case as a kid. * instant non-realtime communication via emails and text messages. Before we were reliant on the postal service so we learned to be patient * online shopping, taking the dependency away from having to travel to the shops as often this is easier said than done when you're old * linked to the above is global shipping - the ability to order something that isn't even available in this country * online resources and, in the more broader sense, the decline of our dependence on libraries * computers in general. I don't just mean portable devices like smart phones, tablets and laptops, but even BASIC-driven micro computers were a relatively new concept when I was born. * the rise of quaternary industries. Tertiary industries were still on the rise when I was born with many people expecting to go straight into secondary (manufacturing) industries. In the last 50 years we've undergone 2 paradigm shifts in the industry landscape * cheap air flights. Plenty of older people enjoy holidays abroad in ways they could only have dreamed about when they were kids There will be others I've not thought about. But I do think it's highly unfair to tar all of the older generation as unable to adapt. Often the slow down is a result of failing mental and/or physical health reducing a persons ability to drift outside of their comfort zone. But if one had an infinite life span then you would hope that would also be in good health. If not, then effectively all we've done is brought about a zombie apocalypse where our bodies and mind fall into ill health while we lose the ability to die.
- sametmax 10y ago
  Those are the easy things. Technology. Pleasures. Services... The hard paradigms are the ones challenging your believes, world views, and habits. Living with people with very different cultures, learning the universe is not working the way you though it is, seeing you are not the person you saw in the mirror, etc.
  - laumars 10y ago
    The world has changed a lot in recent years in that regard as well. Take the "old people are racist" stereotype for example. You see the same with younger people who are not actively exposed to people of different cultures. So it's not that surprising that older people are don't mingle with different cultures wouldn't be afforded the opportunity to have their prejudices challenged. And thus to go back to my previous point: if in an infinite life scenario where "older people" were just as mentally and physically capable as the younger generation of today, you would expect the older generation to be in the position to mingle in the same ways and thus have their prejudices challenged. This is of course all hypothetical. But so is your argument that older people cannot adapt in the same scenario.
    - sametmax 10y ago
      Yeah, hard to know who's right before we get immortal. But nature can produce immortality and evolution didn't settle on it so we should wonder why.
      - laumars 10y ago
        Evolution doesn't work towards an end goal like that though. There are plenty of attributes we have which are sub-optimal. For example our eyes have a number of significant flaws many of which are not present in other, arguably inferior, species to ourselves. You'd probably have a stronger case if you argued about natural selection instead but given the history of humans, it's hard to believe that many would reached the end of their natural lives before getting killed. Certainly not enough and over a long enough period for immortality to have come about.

JohnDotAwesome 10y ago

> paradigm shit Still works.

throwanem 10y ago
Accidental brilliance, even.
- sametmax 10y ago
  When you can't be brillant in any other way...
dredmorbius 10y ago
Transcendendal excremeditation.

laumars 10y ago

Plenty of the older generation have adapted to paradigm shifts though. I mean we've seen enough of them in my generation alone: * the adoption of mobile phones - being able to contact anyone, anytime and at any place. This wasn't the case as a kid. * instant non-realtime communication via emails and text messages. Before we were reliant on the postal service so we learned to be patient * online shopping, taking the dependency away from having to travel to the shops as often this is easier said than done when you're old * linked to the above is global shipping - the ability to order something that isn't even available in this country * online resources and, in the more broader sense, the decline of our dependence on libraries * computers in general. I don't just mean portable devices like smart phones, tablets and laptops, but even BASIC-driven micro computers were a relatively new concept when I was born. * the rise of quaternary industries. Tertiary industries were still on the rise when I was born with many people expecting to go straight into secondary (manufacturing) industries. In the last 50 years we've undergone 2 paradigm shifts in the industry landscape * cheap air flights. Plenty of older people enjoy holidays abroad in ways they could only have dreamed about when they were kids There will be others I've not thought about. But I do think it's highly unfair to tar all of the older generation as unable to adapt. Often the slow down is a result of failing mental and/or physical health reducing a persons ability to drift outside of their comfort zone. But if one had an infinite life span then you would hope that would also be in good health. If not, then effectively all we've done is brought about a zombie apocalypse where our bodies and mind fall into ill health while we lose the ability to die.

sametmax 10y ago
Those are the easy things. Technology. Pleasures. Services... The hard paradigms are the ones challenging your believes, world views, and habits. Living with people with very different cultures, learning the universe is not working the way you though it is, seeing you are not the person you saw in the mirror, etc.
- laumars 10y ago
  The world has changed a lot in recent years in that regard as well. Take the "old people are racist" stereotype for example. You see the same with younger people who are not actively exposed to people of different cultures. So it's not that surprising that older people are don't mingle with different cultures wouldn't be afforded the opportunity to have their prejudices challenged. And thus to go back to my previous point: if in an infinite life scenario where "older people" were just as mentally and physically capable as the younger generation of today, you would expect the older generation to be in the position to mingle in the same ways and thus have their prejudices challenged. This is of course all hypothetical. But so is your argument that older people cannot adapt in the same scenario.
  - sametmax 10y ago
    Yeah, hard to know who's right before we get immortal. But nature can produce immortality and evolution didn't settle on it so we should wonder why.
    - laumars 10y ago
      Evolution doesn't work towards an end goal like that though. There are plenty of attributes we have which are sub-optimal. For example our eyes have a number of significant flaws many of which are not present in other, arguably inferior, species to ourselves. You'd probably have a stronger case if you argued about natural selection instead but given the history of humans, it's hard to believe that many would reached the end of their natural lives before getting killed. Certainly not enough and over a long enough period for immortality to have come about.