4 ms·
What if reluctance to accept new ideas later in life stems from mortality in the first place?
by litenboll 2y ago
What if reluctance to accept new ideas later in life stems from mortality in the first place?
- ted_bunny 2y agoEnough people deny their mortality that I doubt this is the case.
- Filligree 2y agoPeople can deny their mortality all they like; they’re still mortal, and things like lower learning rates are likely to be genetic.
- scandox 2y agoWell who knows. My bet is on the very long-lived being fairly risk averse. And new ideas are risky.
- waterhouse 2y agoIf you're going to retire in N years, then that gives you an upper limit to how much you can benefit from learning (or even experimenting with) a new and potentially better approach, versus sticking with what currently works for you. As N gets smaller, the cost-benefit analysis increasingly favors the latter.
- FeepingCreature 2y agoI like the concept that because we decline in liquid IQ as we age, so our static skill growth is always counterbalanced by our intellectual decline, we have never even seen a human being in the fullness of its power.
- kiba 2y agoThat is silly. Some people are more adaptable than other and are able to change their mind through time.
- litenboll 2y agoWhat is silly? Your statement can be true at the same time... And just to be clear, I did not mean that it's the sole reason that people refute new ideas, I was just opening up the possibility that without mortality we might still have progress without relying on generation shifts.
- throw9474 2y agoWhat if every time you accept new ideas, your old self dies a little bit? Our five year old self is already dead.
- idiotsecant 2y agoI think neuroplasticity is well known to have a physical basis. We can probably extend the neuroplasticity of young adult and early middle age into longer and longer timespans, but all you have to do is watch a teenager or young adult for a few days to see that the extreme neuroplasticity of very young people definitely comes with some drawbacks. I don't think I would want a future immortal billionaire with access to accumulated generations of power to enter a new adolescence with the brain reset that comes along with it. We need young people to be stupid and brash and occasionally fearless and brilliant and unburdened by the lessons (or scars) of the past to keep society moving forward but those can't be the same people in charge of the world. There are roles for both.
- jimbokun 2y agoIn the US at least, young people are a lot more risk averse than previous generations.