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> You are not a brain on a stick We probably are not, but I'm not convinced that the opposite is true. Stephen Hawkins did not notoriously exercise much, give
by peoplefromibiza 4y ago
> You are not a brain on a stick
We probably are not, but I'm not convinced that the opposite is true.
Stephen Hawkins did not notoriously exercise much, given his condition, and yet he died at 76, despite the odds.
Einstein routinely walked a few miles a day and that's all the exercise he did.
Many other popular great thinkers of the past spent a lot more time on books than improving their bodies.
In Italy we learn as children about Giacomo Leopardi, a very popular poet, writer and philosopher of the 19th century, according to Wikipedia "considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of the most important figures in the literature of the world", that His continual studies undermined an already fragile physical constitution, and his illness, probably Pott's disease or ankylosing spondylitis, denied him youth's simplest pleasures
Without evidence I reckon that all we can conclude is that only sometimes exercise is the best cognitive exercise, but we don't know why nor if it is actually true.
- datameta 4y agoWithout attempting to take away anything from your comment I will point out that a routine of walking a few miles a day is sufficient to reap most cognitive benefits.
- peoplefromibiza 4y agoI agree. But who actually doesn't? We all (almost) walk a few miles (or kms) a day, without even realising it.
- Jtsummers 4y agoMost people in the US don't walk a "few" miles a day, the average is 1.5-2.5 miles (depending on the study). Our very car-centric society makes it difficult to get incidental walking distances up. If you switch to kilometers, then yes, the average person in the US walks a few kilometers a day.
- xeromal 4y agoI'd wager that most professional office setting americans walk less than 5000 steps a day.
- kkahmann 4y agoI'm lucky if I even get that without supplementing with intentional exercise and I guarantee I walk more than anyone else in my office (during the work day)
- the_fury 4y agoI'd agree with that. Unless I'm trying to increase the amount I walk, I usually come in under 5K steps a day. It's not at all hard to add a few tasks to get it up to a more reasonable number, and I do, but if I don't intentionally add those tasks, the baseline is very low indeed.
- csours 4y agoYes, it is a relative thing, not a determinative thing. It's hard to talk about this without tripping on ableism - but - Stephen Hawkins started out with such a great cognitive ability that a deficit later in life would have been less noticeable. Life is more than a cognitive experience, it's a human experience. Hawkins' human experience was not great. I've read that he was very hard on the people close to him. Even if exercise 'only' helped with dealing with emotions, that would still show up as a cognitive improvement - it's hard to think straight when you are upset. > I'm not convinced that the opposite is true. I'm not entirely sure what 'the opposite' means. "You are a brain on a stick"? It is evident that the brain does not survive without the body. It is evident that the brain is affected by what the body does. The body is not a stick. The brain does compute, but it is not a computer. A computer does not actively take in information about the world. A computer does not form familial and tribal affiliations. A computer has a very limited experience of the world.
- asveikau 4y ago> Einstein routinely walked a few miles a day and that's all the exercise he did. Do you mean to say this is insignificant? I think even if you don't work up much of a sweat or do some heavy lifting or whatever, a daily walk is very good for your health.