

Can you trick your ageing body into feeling younger? - drinian
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11284180

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wheaties
Unfortunately they didn't setup a control case to test if it was actually
returning them to their 1970s lives or if it were forcing them to live in a
"more challenging" environment. There's no way for them, as researchers, to
disambiguate the effects of "time travel" from just making them do more things
for themselves.

~~~
IgorPartola
Agreed. But does it matter? Live a more challenging life and shape the world
around you is the takeaway.

~~~
Vivtek
Yeah, it _does_ matter. The way this was set up, it was impossible to tell
whether the admittedly cool premise of pretending it was 30 years ago had any
effect at all. That would have been an interesting thesis, and now we still
have no idea whether it's true.

I mean, how much of feeling old is just feeling that the world is moving on
without you?

~~~
jamesbritt
The biggest indicator of "oldness" is no longer making big plans, no longer
looking forward to things, but instead spending increasing time with some form
of nostalgia, or focused on the mundane.

People like Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O'Keefe just keep working and
making plans like they were going to live forever. They had the right idea.

~~~
ggchappell
Possibly so. But, ironically, this article is about making people feel younger
by giving them what amounts to an intense nostalgia trip.

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aarghh
Dylan Thomas said it best:

"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

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jamesbressi
Time for me to get on red zip-up pajamas with the white padded feet; watch
shows like G.I Joe, Voltron, Thundercats, The People's Court, Highway to
Heaven, Airwolf; wear white tube socks with the color stripes on top and
Reebok Pump hightop sneakers; replace my iHome with a Sony Dream Machine alarm
clock; and use Print Shop on my Commodore PC XXIII and print out my radical
flyers with my dot matrix printer.

Ahhhh I feel younger just thinking about it and writing it out (no,
seriously). Although that would take me back to my single digit aged days,
just a little too far back.

A spin on an 'Ol Dirty Bastard line: "I'ma rub your ass In the moonshine /
Let's take it back to '89"

~~~
rdouble
Sounds like a number of bars in Bushwick...

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gaius
But this wasn't like the 70s at all - back then there were far more smokers,
for example, and I bet they didn't say, smoke as much as you really did back
then, eat what you ate back then, etc. It was merely forcing them to exercise
more.

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tomwalker
Independence is very important. It is always amazing to meet someone in their
90's that live without any outside help; they are always healthy (relatively).

I think that we are at an interesting point of human ageing. Improved health
via diet, exercise, awareness, etc. has lead to a point in which 70 year olds
are no longer marginalised and, if competent, can perform roles just as well
as anyone half their age.

~~~
randallsquared
> Independence is very important. It is always amazing to meet someone in
> their 90's that live without any outside help; they are always healthy
> (relatively).

I think causation might run the other way, there.

~~~
eru
Or both ways. Somebody with a strong spirit of independence will insist on
walking on their own, thus keeping them fit and independent.

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nlavezzo
Cool story, but not practical for me. Not going back to a 386 anytime soon -
although maybe replaying some classic Sierra RPG's might do the trick?

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known
"Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present." --Jean de la
Bruyere

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c00p3r
_Life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think._ (c) some smart guy
around 2500 years ago.

The longer explanation - everything is connected not because it is
predestined, but because by a cause and effect. So processes in the mind are
affecting bodily processes, and opposite, of course, is true at the exactly
same time.

The same guy, btw, taught that the cause of suffering is ignorance - not
knowing your own nature.

~~~
astine
Sounds a lot like Plato. Good guess?

~~~
c00p3r
edit: my fault. They were here almost at the same time. ^_^

~~~
astine
Ah! figured it out. He's Buddha. I knew I should have Googled that. When you
wrote 'guy,' I read 'Greek,' and spent a while trying to ascertain which Greek
believed exactly that. :)

