X-Message-Number: 14767
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 20:42:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ruthanna R Gordon <>
Subject: RE: about aging and new ideas

<On Sat, 21 Oct 2000 Thomas Donaldson wrote>
> 
> There is also a second comment to which we won't really know the answer
> until later. An old thinker will have a simple problem with any new
> idea which might contradict his/her own thoughts: old thinkers are
> NOW close to death, and may not want to think about ideas which 
> contradict their own, which once made them famous. Put simply, the
> influence of previous thinking comes not because you are old and
> have lots of years behind you, but because you have very few years
> in front of you. Note that if we start living much longer, then
> our future life expands and some of us might more easily accept
> new ideas ... just as if we were young again.

I actually read an article last year (it's in one of these
piles...somewhere) correlating psychological priorities with both age and
nearness to death (i.e. they also looked at young people with terminal
illnesses).  They found the greater correlation with nearness to
death.  It seems likely to me that other attitudes might share the same
correlation.

Long Life,
Ruthanna Gordon
  

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14767