09 December 2019

Rethinking the "map of life"

From an interesting article in the Washington Post:
It’s time to get serious about a major redesign of life. Thirty years were added to average life expectancy in the 20th century, and rather than imagine the scores of ways we could use these years to improve quality of life, we tacked them all on at the end. Only old age got longer.

As a result, most people are anxious about the prospect of living for a century. Asked about aspirations for living to 100, typical responses are “I hope I don’t outlive my money” or “I hope I don’t get dementia.”..

Long lives are not the problem. The problem is living in cultures designed for lives half as long as the ones we have.
Retirements that span four decades are unattainable for most individuals and governments; education that ends in the early 20s is ill-suited for longer working lives; and social norms that dictate intergenerational responsibilities between parents and young children fail to address families that include four or five living generations...

We agreed that longevity demands rethinking of all stages of life, not just old age. To thrive in an age of rapid knowledge transfer, children not only need reading, math and computer literacy, but they also need to learn to think creatively and not hold on to “facts” too tightly. They’ll need to find joy in unlearning and relearning. Teens could take breaks from high school and take internships in workplaces that intrigue them. Education wouldn’t end in youth but rather be ever-present and take many forms outside of classrooms, from micro-degrees to traveling the world...

Financing longevity requires major rethinking. Rather than saving ever-larger pots of money for the end of life, we could pool risks in new ways.
No answers at the link, but some thought-provoking observations.  It's too late for me.  Save yourself.

2 comments:

  1. It's never too late to learn. I taught both my (now deceased, RIP) grandfathers how to use computers and the Internet when they were in their mid-80s. If they can learn it, anyone can.

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  2. If we ever are able to ascertain that there is life beyond this life, we can likely be willing to pass on much sooner. In Robert Redford's movie, "The Discovery," just such a finding is ascertained, but it leads to suicides, etc. But the point remains that, so long as we don't fully trust the unknown future, we feel compelled to squeeze out all of life we can.

    I'd be far more willing for my parents to go--and for me to go--if I was just SURE...and it wasn't just a matter of FAITH.

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