5 ms·

This is a personal anecdote, but it happened last week seems relevant-ish: My landlord is a hikikomori. He is around 50-60 years old, and refuses to leave his

This is a personal anecdote, but it happened last week seems relevant-ish: My landlord is a hikikomori. He is around 50-60 years old, and refuses to leave his room in his house; he instead barks orders at his extremely elderly mother (we're talking older than dirt here; I wouldn't be surprised if she was older than 80). She is a very kind old woman. I was shocked that he sent her to collect water money (we pay to our landlord instead of directly to the utility; they are quite wealthy and generous, so I doubt it is a scheme to extract extra cash from tenants) as I live on the third floor of a building with no elevator. I found out about he was that way when I went over to their house to pay my water bill; I didn't want to make her walk up all those stairs again for the sake of around twenty dollars. My water heater was kinda-sorta broken from being quite old (probably as old as the building, so 1991). She thought it was my air conditioner that was broken, and I corrected her. She stood at the open door his dark, shuttered room (this is around noon) and asked him if that was correct. He growled back in an annoyed tone "I TOLD YOU IT WAS THE WATER HEATER!" Even though I told her it was fine, she apologized profusely, gave me some vegetables, and sent me on my way. The whole experience was surreal...

hkmurakami 13y ago
The first wave of young new graduates having problems finding work hit in the early to mid 90's, when the Japanese bubble crashed. The new grads for the rest of the 90s were called "the lost generation", with many of them never being able to find full time work. (the period was also called "The First Employment Ice Age") That was roughly 20 years ago. This massive wave of underemployed, often-unmarried folks are now in their late 30s. The middle-aged, unemployed, clinically depressed, hikikkomori problem is about to get a whole lot worse in the coming decades (the graduating classes of 2010-2012 were hit really hard too after the financial crisis. This era was called "The Second Employment Ice Age". The class of 2009 was the last class that really had it good in the 2000s.)
- panacea 13y ago
  "hit in the early to mid 90's" So did the internet. You couldn't be a hikikomori before then... you were simply a recluse. That was a psychological condition reserved for the 'crazy old...'
erre 13y ago
On a side note: his extremely elderly mother (we're talking older than dirt here; I wouldn't be surprised if she was older than 80). I found your choice of terms interesting :) Most people in their 80s that I know seem to be doing fine, are physically and intellectually active, and I wouldn't describe them as "older than dirt" - unless you're talking about somewhat young dirt, here ;). May I ask how old you are? I am genuinely curious, as I can picture myself thinking of an 80 year-old as "extremely old" when I was in my early twenties, but not nowadays (I'm 35)
- api 13y ago
  80 is the new 60 basically. Tangent: people think life extension will magically materialize with some singularity type event, but in reality it's a slow creeping thing. The single most powerful life extension technology ever developed is the cardiac bypass, for example.
  - rsaarelm 13y ago
    We've gotten good interventions for a lot of things that will kill you that aren't old age. But if you've already managed to live to 90, your further life expectancy might not be much better today than it would have been in Ancient Greece. See http://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/your-body-wasnt-built-to-last-a-lesson-from-human-mortality-rates/ http://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/your-body-w... for how bad things get when you age. Some kind of medical intervention that targeted the actual senescence mechanism instead of just the other problems it causes would be an actual game-changer, and I don't see how we could get living past 100 to be very probable without coming up with one.
  - gohrt 13y ago
    > The single most powerful life extension technology ever developed is the cardiac bypass, for example. How do you mean that? http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/a-cardiac-conundrum http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/a-cardiac-conundrum > Angioplasty can save the lives of heart-attack patients. But for patients with stable coronary disease, who comprise a large share of angioplasty patients? It has not been shown to extend life expectancy by a day

hkmurakami 13y ago

The first wave of young new graduates having problems finding work hit in the early to mid 90's, when the Japanese bubble crashed. The new grads for the rest of the 90s were called "the lost generation", with many of them never being able to find full time work. (the period was also called "The First Employment Ice Age") That was roughly 20 years ago. This massive wave of underemployed, often-unmarried folks are now in their late 30s. The middle-aged, unemployed, clinically depressed, hikikkomori problem is about to get a whole lot worse in the coming decades (the graduating classes of 2010-2012 were hit really hard too after the financial crisis. This era was called "The Second Employment Ice Age". The class of 2009 was the last class that really had it good in the 2000s.)

panacea 13y ago
"hit in the early to mid 90's" So did the internet. You couldn't be a hikikomori before then... you were simply a recluse. That was a psychological condition reserved for the 'crazy old...'

erre 13y ago

On a side note: his extremely elderly mother (we're talking older than dirt here; I wouldn't be surprised if she was older than 80). I found your choice of terms interesting :) Most people in their 80s that I know seem to be doing fine, are physically and intellectually active, and I wouldn't describe them as "older than dirt" - unless you're talking about somewhat young dirt, here ;). May I ask how old you are? I am genuinely curious, as I can picture myself thinking of an 80 year-old as "extremely old" when I was in my early twenties, but not nowadays (I'm 35)

api 13y ago
80 is the new 60 basically. Tangent: people think life extension will magically materialize with some singularity type event, but in reality it's a slow creeping thing. The single most powerful life extension technology ever developed is the cardiac bypass, for example.
- rsaarelm 13y ago
  We've gotten good interventions for a lot of things that will kill you that aren't old age. But if you've already managed to live to 90, your further life expectancy might not be much better today than it would have been in Ancient Greece. See http://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/your-body-wasnt-built-to-last-a-lesson-from-human-mortality-rates/ http://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/your-body-w... for how bad things get when you age. Some kind of medical intervention that targeted the actual senescence mechanism instead of just the other problems it causes would be an actual game-changer, and I don't see how we could get living past 100 to be very probable without coming up with one.
- gohrt 13y ago
  > The single most powerful life extension technology ever developed is the cardiac bypass, for example. How do you mean that? http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/a-cardiac-conundrum http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/a-cardiac-conundrum > Angioplasty can save the lives of heart-attack patients. But for patients with stable coronary disease, who comprise a large share of angioplasty patients? It has not been shown to extend life expectancy by a day