The oldest person in Australia recently died at the age of 112. She was born in 1914, before WWI even began. But in the story I was reading there were a couple paraphrased snippets from an interview she gave a couple years ago that resonated and perhaps, shows the wisdom of a hundred plus years lived through some pretty extreme events.
Move all the time, both physically and in your thoughts.
You can’t led old-fashioned ideas take over your life. You’ve got to live today, by today’s standards. And keep going with it, and be happy with it.
Pretty good advice.
The first one I can fully get behind. Never stop moving. Keep active physically, mentally, emotionally and socially, because these four areas make us whole and the better we can maintain each, the fuller our lives become.
the second one I half agree. Because while I fully believe that we shouldn't let old-fashioned ideas take over our life and we should continually evolve ourselves toward better outcomes, I don't think that means living by today's standards. At least. not the standards we have built for this current day. We have degraded because instead of continually evolving for better, we have practiced to keep accepting worse. We might have made ourselves more individualistic and less reliant on others through consumerism, but we have also largely degraded ourselves as individuals across those four factors that make us whole, that enable a great life. Obesity and disease, mental illness, emotional instability and social disconnection are advancing, not reducing.
We should not be happy with the current course we are on.
Today's standards in terms of human advancement and wellbeing are nothing to be proud of. Yes, technologically we might be moving ahead in leaps and bounds on the back of AI and automation, but how it is being used and what it is being used for, should shame us. We have all this potential, yet it is directed toward what?
Entertainment? Distraction? Violence?
Profits.
She lived 112 years, saw wars, pandemics, and some of the most unbelievable technological advances, but in that same time - people haven't changed. Behaviours have, but people at their core are the same as we were a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand years ago. The difference now is that we have a host of tools to takeover our faculties, to give us the opportunity to avoid and not to learn.
We have tools that mean we needn't move.
And this is where we go back to that first quote. Move all the time, both physically and in your thoughts. We have the history of the world and everything we have ever learned as a species at our fingertips. We have access to healthcare, nutrition, sports and exercise. Yet, we sit, scrolling phones, staring at screens, consuming passively, mindlessly, without thought, without action, without growth.
That is not a standard worthy to live by.
It doesn't matter if you live 20 years, a hundred years or a thousand years; if it is spent passively and thoughtlessly consuming, what kind of life does it become. Is it worth living? Longevity is meaningless without purpose, so instead of pushing the boundaries of how long we can can extend our lives, we should be trying to push how well we we can live our lives. Don't be happy with what we have, but learn to be happy with what we do day to day to make our lives and those of the people we care about, better. Because if we do that, as long as everyone is building healthy relationships that share compassion and love, everyone's life improves just by everyone going about their day, helping themselves and those closest.
Especially in the age where technology is going to make many of us redundant, we should be pivoting away from the current standards of blind profit unattached to human wellbeing, and toward wealth of experience and human growth across everything that is important for us to live a great life.
No matter how long we live.
And no matter how long we live, it is never very long in the grand scheme of us.
Taraz
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Technology has made our lives much easier, but it has also made it very easy to become passive and spend hours consuming content without actually doing anything. When it comes to AI, I think we may lose some of our skills, such as thinking and questioning.
We have already lost skills before AI was mainstream - AI will just speed the loss up.
Money was the worst thing ever invented
What makes you say that? I’m curious to know why you think money was the worst thing ever invented.
Because people are greedy... they can't be satisfied with what they have. Nowadays people are working 60 hours a week for money to pay to live. Electric costs money. Wifi costs money. Food costs money. Gas costs money. Money has made life a subscription service. Designed to keep the 99% under the control of the 1%
It has definitely the tool that has been used to generate the worst outcomes for humanity.
I think that this is very relatable. I would hate to live to be 112. That would be a real curse. I think that at that point my mind would be about as reliable as trump's was about ten years ago.By the way I just checked he is just 80 years old? That is the same age as our favorite neigbour. She has various ilness but her mind is still fine...
I think Trump has always been sick in the head.
The real measure of life isn’t simply how many years we accumulate, but how much meaning we create in those years. A long life without purpose can still feel empty, while a shorter life filled with love, growth, kindness, and meaningful relationships can leave a lasting impact.
And I think that it could be that at least for some of us, we would provide more value or cost less suffering, living a shorter life.
Living long without purpose really means little. We have so many things making life easier today, but we also need to stay active, think for ourselves, and care about the people around us. That is what makes life meaningful.
The challenge is, the more we disconnect, the less people are worthy of our time also.
I saw old people who are much more active than young people
Life isn’t about how many years we get. It’s about how we spend them. I do agree that a long life without purpose feels empty. What matters most is love, growth, and the relationships we build. Real living means making each day count.
Our history as a species has been competition for resources, so I don't see how that would ever change to pivot towards wealth of experience and human growth across everything that is important for us to live a great life. I think while technology is going to make many of us redundant, the resources would still remain finite so competition for those will remain...
I recently read this article where the author went around doing paintings of things while on holiday instead of taking photos. Made me kind of mentally really try to get on to this travellers notebook I want to make after I finish the quilt I'm on...even though it will have to be done alongside a very overdue quilt I haven't started yet ^_^;
and absolutely will not stop me from taking photos
You can do the literal exact same thing with books but that gets a free pass now because books XD
Once upon a time I used to get told I read too much
I have been approaching this from grassroots for some years and it is shifting. It is just taking way freaking longer than anyone desperate for instant gratification dopamine hits can tolerate and it has to be like this otherwise stuff swings too far the other way and ends up being just as stupid in a different direction.
I was going to say, that second one doesn't seem like something you would be totally on board with. By that thinking, I would imagine the 112 year old person was pretty well versed in AI and using it daily! :) I agree about the movement thing and that is something I have been trying to stick to as I get older. It's actually kind of funny how so many people who live to be so old pretty much all say the same thing when asked how they do it. Yet we just don't seem to listen.
Thanks