5 ms·

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 te

by 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
  - Groxx 13y ago
    They state "save the lives of heart-attack patients". That (partially) supports the statement, since saving a life is definitely increasing their lifespan. The rest of the quote is stating the inverse though, that not all angioplasty recipients live longer (converse? meh, you know what I mean). And that it might be over-proscribed. Neither of those have anything to do with it's ability to prolong life in other cases.
epsylon 13y ago
80 is still above life expectancy by Western industrialized countries standard. It's also an age where if for some reason you are hospitalized (whether it's because of "natural" diseases for old age or because you broke a limb), chances are you will need heavy care for the rest of your life.
- zhemao 13y ago
  It's not above life expectancy for Japan, though. Avg. life expectancy of Japan is 83. The second part of your argument is still valid, though.
rangibaby 13y ago
I'm 23, so that observation is spot on :-)
ewrwerwerw 13y ago
My dad is 75 and my mom is 73 and they are quite strong and active still. I don't actually think of them as old. In fact, my mom behaves more like a teenager in that she loves hanging out. Morning coffee or afternoon tea gossiping with friends or her kids is the best for her. My dad has his own ritual. He wakes up around 6AM, goes to Dunking Donuts to have coffee with a croissant and then goes about his day to manage three apartment buildings. My point: They are not old. I'm 35 years old by the way.
nilkn 13y ago
How can you be so certain that you know a truly representative sample of people in their 80s? There are a very considerable number of people in that age range who are most certainly not really doing all that fine and whose physical and intellectual activity are nowhere near what they once were even ten years prior. It's hard to know the mental and physical state of another person sometimes through a passing glance or cursory interaction. Sometimes even with more substantial interaction the true nature of their state can remain hidden from you. My grandmother, for instance, who is in her late 70s, experiences chronic pain in her knees. But I wouldn't have known that if my father hadn't told me; she generally does what she can to happily tolerate the severe pain when around family members.
ronaldx 13y ago
Let's be clear about this: the median world age is around 28 years. You are old.

by erre 13y ago

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
- Groxx 13y ago
  They state "save the lives of heart-attack patients". That (partially) supports the statement, since saving a life is definitely increasing their lifespan. The rest of the quote is stating the inverse though, that not all angioplasty recipients live longer (converse? meh, you know what I mean). And that it might be over-proscribed. Neither of those have anything to do with it's ability to prolong life in other cases.

epsylon 13y ago

80 is still above life expectancy by Western industrialized countries standard. It's also an age where if for some reason you are hospitalized (whether it's because of "natural" diseases for old age or because you broke a limb), chances are you will need heavy care for the rest of your life.

zhemao 13y ago
It's not above life expectancy for Japan, though. Avg. life expectancy of Japan is 83. The second part of your argument is still valid, though.

rangibaby 13y ago

I'm 23, so that observation is spot on :-)

ewrwerwerw 13y ago

My dad is 75 and my mom is 73 and they are quite strong and active still. I don't actually think of them as old. In fact, my mom behaves more like a teenager in that she loves hanging out. Morning coffee or afternoon tea gossiping with friends or her kids is the best for her. My dad has his own ritual. He wakes up around 6AM, goes to Dunking Donuts to have coffee with a croissant and then goes about his day to manage three apartment buildings. My point: They are not old. I'm 35 years old by the way.

nilkn 13y ago

How can you be so certain that you know a truly representative sample of people in their 80s? There are a very considerable number of people in that age range who are most certainly not really doing all that fine and whose physical and intellectual activity are nowhere near what they once were even ten years prior. It's hard to know the mental and physical state of another person sometimes through a passing glance or cursory interaction. Sometimes even with more substantial interaction the true nature of their state can remain hidden from you. My grandmother, for instance, who is in her late 70s, experiences chronic pain in her knees. But I wouldn't have known that if my father hadn't told me; she generally does what she can to happily tolerate the severe pain when around family members.

ronaldx 13y ago

Let's be clear about this: the median world age is around 28 years. You are old.