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I have often wondered what it is like to get old. My parents had me when they were definitely in their later years of life, I believe my dad was 45 when I was born! I have seen them age considerably, though probably more on my mother's part than my father's. I think my dad will be physically fit forever, he was an Olympian back in the day (1968) and has kept in shape ever since. Few 65 year olds still have defined abs like him. However, what I worry about most when it comes to aging isn't looks or physical health, but mental health.
My grandmother on my mom's side was always a prideful and selfish person. Truthfully, she didn't even raise my mom, she let her mother do that, because she was too busy with attending social events and the like. Thus, in her old age she has a kind of "woe is me" habit. Albeit, I love her to death, as she is family, and I certainly seem to tolerate her selfish and self-pitying behavior more than my mother does. However, her mind has been slowly slipping away, which, combined with her personality, has actually created some amusing situations.
For example, my grandmother and my mom were supposed to go to the casino on Sunday together. However, when my mom called her on Sunday morning, my grandmother said that she had a cold/flu and was much too sick to go and then spent the next ten minutes complaining about how awful she felt, etc. Later that day, my mom called her to check up on her, the conversation went something like the following:
M: "Hi, mom, how are you feeling?"
G: "What? I'm feeling fine."
M: "Oh? What did you do today?"
G: "Art took me out to lunch and the park. It was nice, then I..."
M: "What?!?! You told me this morning you were sick, we had plans to go to the casino today."
G: "Uh..."
M: "So you weren't sick?"
G: "Uh... I don't know... I'm so confused."
I mean, I feel sorry for the poor old woman and there is a chance that she was actually feeling terrible, then felt better and forgot about abandoning her plans. However, I've known her to BS a lot of pain and woe for pity and her own devices, so I prefer to think of this as an amusing mishap where all of her lies are finally catching up to her.
My grandmother's brain turning to mush has scared me a little. Admittedly, she's over four times over than me, but it's not nice to think about my sanity and memory slipping away! Some of my peers are comforted by the promise technology will increase so much in the next few decades that you will be able to "upload your mind." Truthfully, I find that even more frightening, because if someone can make a copy of my mind, then what real value is the original to anyone by myself! :'( So scary...
  
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Nobody is going to be able to copy a person's brain in our lifetime if ever, so don't even give it any thought.
Getting old and dying is certainly a scary thing and a mystery, but it happens to eveyone. I imagine being born and growing up wasn't easy, but we did it, and we will manage the end of our lives when the time comes.
Worrying about getting old when you are in your 20s isn't worth doing. Your 80 year old self would see it as such a waste of energy.
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On May 26 2011 09:02 deathly rat wrote:
Worrying about getting old when you are in your 20s isn't worth doing. Your 80 year old self would see it as such a waste of energy.
A dumb person told me a wise thing once.
"Worrying is like a rocking chair. It just gives you something to do."
All of the worry you do wont change the end result...Just go along for the ride.
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Your dad was in the olympics? Please elaborate.
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Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm rocketing toward my 40th birthday (stop pls, I want to get off!) but I don't really feel any worse, or any less sharp, than I did when I was 19 or 20. So, with luck, you have some time to enjoy your youth. 
That said, I think that forgetting is one of the things that keeps us sane as we get older. Memories of painful experiences fade with time, yet my experience is that memories of good moments can remain remarkably vivid.
In the long run, our bodies and our minds will eventually fail us all, but if we're fortunate enough for it to happen in our 80s or later, we're probably doing pretty well.
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On May 26 2011 09:47 travis wrote:
Your dad was in the olympics? Please elaborate.
This. Sport? Win anything?
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Just think of it this way dude, every breath you take you are getting closer and closer to death as a pilot of this flimsy biological machine made to implode. The key is to just distract the hell out of yourself or get really drunk. Then you will feel a lot better because you won't give a shit, also I suggest blasting music in your ears.
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On May 26 2011 09:47 travis wrote:
Your dad was in the olympics? Please elaborate.
400m hurdler, he's tall and all legs! My mom is rather short and stout, so I definitely think I got my dad's genes! My dad was on the 1968 Olympic team, which competed in Mexico City. He had the faster time of any runner in the world for the 400m hurdles at the time and was projected to win gold. However, back in that time, the US required tons of various shots for their athletes going to Mexico and they basically gave them to him as he was getting on the plane. When he warming up for the races, the shots made his muscles stiff and he tore a muscle going over a hurdle. Hurdlers, especially 400m hurdlers, have a strong leg that they always prefer to lead with. My father switched lead legs so he could keep running after his injury and almost made the 1972 team (yes, Munich), but he had been in Vietnam where he couldn't keep up his track training (due to lack of a track... and being shot at constantly).
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Getting old is at least 50% subjective. Some of it is unavoidable, and some only happens when you let it.
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edit: ninja'd
Hrm, I'd say don't worry about getting older. Its a natural process and it's bound to happen sometime, but i highly doubt that it'll affect you any time soon. =P
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We can already create synthetic neurons with working synaptic connections to existing tissue, stay positive.
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On May 26 2011 09:56 SlipperySnake wrote:
Just think of it this way dude, every breath you take you are getting closer and closer to death as a pilot of this flimsy biological machine made to implode. The key is to just distract the hell out of yourself or get really drunk. Then you will feel a lot better because you won't give a shit, also I suggest blasting music in your ears.
Haha, I'm really not worrying too much. It's more just my bemused pondering for the day.
However, I do wish "retirement" occurred when you were young and then you worked out your days when you're old. That's how I'd prefer to live!
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I fear the mental and physical decay equally. Admittedly, I fear aging more than anything at this point in my life. I'm a lifelong athlete who takes pride in being more physically fit than 99% (or whatever high #) of the population. I'm barely into my twenties so I don't worry about it very often but I know eventually it will come. Well, actually I don't know. Living until an old age isn't guaranteed I suppose.
In response to SlipperSnake, I wish it was that easy. The only problem is all my dad's old friends lecture me on how the consequences of drinking become worse. That is, hangovers become much shittier with age lol. And I blast music but that will only make aging even more miserable as our hearing goes.
Damnit, why didn't Ponce de Leon ever find the fountain of youth.
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I used to be like this, then I realised that if I worry about something that is guaranteed to happen in the distant future then I should also worry about stuff that is likely to happen now.
For example, do you worry about getting hit by a car? How about being severely injured in an accident. Dying from food poisoning? Being murdered? A victim of a random bashing? Contracting a serious illness? All these things might happen in your lifetime. In fact they could happen today. Do you worry about them?
You fear aging because "but it's not nice to think about my sanity and memory slipping away! " Well that may or may not happen. If it does, you may or may not know about it.
If you worry about this kind of thing, that at worst will happen in very distant future, logically, you should be worrying about other things that might happen sooner. particularly those that you can prevent. For example, by never getting into a car.
Depressed yet?
As always life happens, or it doesn't. Your choice is how to live it. Worry if you must, but to me it's a waste of time.
Possibly the best thing I've read on the internet
On May 26 2011 09:30 Gleve wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On May 26 2011 09:02 deathly rat wrote:
Worrying about getting old when you are in your 20s isn't worth doing. Your 80 year old self would see it as such a waste of energy. A dumb person told me a wise thing once. "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It just gives you something to do." All of the worry you do wont change the end result...Just go along for the ride.
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If people did upload their brains into computers they'd be so much more efficient. They wouldn't need to sleep, they would have infinite amounts of computing power, and the ability to store and access all their memories. A human connected to a computer would literally become smarter than any other human living on this planet within seconds. Overnight he might change the face of humanity forever. Technological singularity is scary shit.
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On May 26 2011 11:43 Probulous wrote:I used to be like this, then I realised that if I worry about something that is guaranteed to happen in the distant future then I should also worry about stuff that is likely to happen now. For example, do you worry about getting hit by a car? How about being severely injured in an accident. Dying from food poisoning? Being murdered? A victim of a random bashing? Contracting a serious illness? All these things might happen in your lifetime. In fact they could happen today. Do you worry about them? You fear aging because "but it's not nice to think about my sanity and memory slipping away! " Well that may or may not happen. If it does, you may or may not know about it. If you worry about this kind of thing, that at worst will happen in very distant future, logically, you should be worrying about other things that might happen sooner. particularly those that you can prevent. For example, by never getting into a car. Depressed yet? As always life happens, or it doesn't. Your choice is how to live it. Worry if you must, but to me it's a waste of time. Possibly the best thing I've read on the internet Show nested quote +On May 26 2011 09:30 Gleve wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On May 26 2011 09:02 deathly rat wrote:
Worrying about getting old when you are in your 20s isn't worth doing. Your 80 year old self would see it as such a waste of energy. A dumb person told me a wise thing once. "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It just gives you something to do." All of the worry you do wont change the end result...Just go along for the ride.
:x
Really, I'm not actually scared of anything, it was just musings. Truthfully, I fear having to clean my turtle tank a day early due to it's earthworm consumption more than I worry about death and memory loss!
On May 26 2011 12:04 obesechicken13 wrote:
If people did upload their brains into computers they'd be so much more efficient. They wouldn't need to sleep, they would have infinite amounts of computing power, and the ability to store and access all their memories. A human connected to a computer would literally become smarter than any other human living on this planet within seconds. Overnight he might change the face of humanity forever. Technological singularity is scary shit.
Integration = Awesome
Replacement = Terrifying
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On May 26 2011 08:50 Riku wrote:
Truthfully, I find that even more frightening, because if someone can make a copy of my mind, then what real value is the original to anyone by myself! :'( So scary...
For those sensitive to mild half-spoilers of movies:
+ Show Spoiler +If you haven't seen "The Prestige," you should.
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Despite all these comments that say not to worry about it, that it's just a fact of life (common sense! blasphemy!), I'm completely with you on this one--I have the exact same thoughts. My parents are a little bit younger than yours, but I've also noticed that they're not as sharp as they used to be, and more often now they say that something is "stupid" if it doesn't work or push me to do it. Before they would be more willing to take matters into their own hands. Behavioral changes like that + more white hairs, etc, just make me realize time passes too fast. I know, got to enjoy it while it lasts, but I can't help but be nostalgic sometimes.
On May 26 2011 10:04 Riku wrote:
However, I do wish "retirement" occurred when you were young and then you worked out your days when you're old. That's how I'd prefer to live!
Heh, yeah I've had this thought too. Only problem is then we would have nothing to look forward to once we do start work. Cue depression and low worker morale. I'll just wait patiently for insta-grow clone technology, so the clone can go to work and I can go on vacation.
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Saw a video yesterday about the science and potential for treating mental sickness as well as the possibilities of downloading memories.
+ Show Spoiler +
Think I'll go spend some time with my gran now.
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At some point we may be able to upload and download our memories. That actually scares me a bit. If we would stay alive (in that i mean our mind) forever and it would shrink the room for new people. The life on earth all revolves around things dying to make room for new things.
I find the entire living forever thing rude and elitist.
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EPT
