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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:22 am Post subject: Old age begins at 27 |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4995546/Old-age-begins-at-27-as-mental-powers-start-to-decline-scientists-find.html
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mental agility � reasoning skills, speed of thought, and the like � peaks at age 22 and begins declining at 27. In other words, old age begins at 27.
It�s startling (and depressing), but if you think about it, not that surprising. Paul McCartney was 22 when he wrote �Yesterday,� and 27 when he recorded his last song with the Beatles. Niels Bohr unveiled his model of the atom, with electrons orbiting a nucleus, at age 28. Einstein was 26 when he published the theory of relativity. If genius begins its decay after age 27, it certainly fits with experience. |
I'm just a bit over 27 and already I find my brain to not be a sharp as it used to be. Does anyone have any advice for slowing mental decline? This is really depressing. I want to remain as sharp as possible for as long as I can! |
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JMO

Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Location: Daegu
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:55 am Post subject: |
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My great aunt is in her 90s and is very sharp. Learn a second language or a third and be very interested in what's going on now. A lot of people tend to live in the past, she in her 90s knows all about todays stars, tv shows, movies etc. |
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AmericanExile
Joined: 04 May 2009
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:28 am Post subject: |
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Robert Frost didn't find success as a poet until he was almost 40. The classic example: grandma moses. Anecdotes make for bad evidence.
The human brain is plastic (not the material) and has the capacity to change and develop throughout life. Most people get a comfy life and stop trying, stop learning. I'm willing to believe that happens in significant numbers starting around age 27. I'm not willing to believe brilliance is the private reserve of those under 27. |
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Globutron
Joined: 13 Feb 2010 Location: England/Anyang
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:29 am Post subject: |
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It looks like a lie, not that I've opened it. It can only be talking about averages or at best, the means.
But it's right in the sense that our brains start to 'crystallize', and 'fluid' intelligence will start to dry out. Somewhere roughly around there for most people, perhaps. |
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Zulethe

Joined: 04 Jul 2008
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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People who preoccupy themselves with age are already dead. The thought of thinking about aging actually ages you.
I'm 42 but I always tell myself that I'm 45 and I also tell others that I'm older than I am. This way, I'm going to be 45 for 4 years!!
I can't wait for my 50's cause I'm going to be smoking hot.
My 60's are going to be my warm-up years.
My 70's are going to be years of generativity (see Eric Erikson).
My 80's are going to be years of oversight as well as reflection.
My 90's are going to be spent moving....anywhere if I can. |
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Sector7G
Joined: 24 May 2008
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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It sounds true to me, as far as it goes. But hopefully the drop off in sharpness is replaced by knowledge and wisdom gained through experience. |
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The Gipkik
Joined: 30 Mar 2009
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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The human brain is way too complex to make an argument like this mean anything broadly. While certain kinds of neural networks have yet to be ingrained and deeply patterned--which is why some kinds of intellectual creativity are best done before the frontal lobes have fully developed (around the age of 25), other kinds of creative thought require the connecting and reconnecting power that fully generated and recursive neural loops can offer. This is the synergistic and synthesizing power of the human mind that is virtually impossible to attain before the brain reaches a certain developmental stage. When the neurons begin to overlap and connect with an entire host of segmenting and intersecting nodes, this is when the real power of the brain begins its ascent.
It's easy to remember things and obsess about things when the brain has relatively few nodal points. It's like one long highway in the middle of a desert. |
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Underwaterbob

Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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The few examples they give are hardly convincing. What about Steven Hawking who is still revising black hole theories at 68, or Isaac Newton who was 45 when Principia, still considered to be one of the most important works of science, was published? Paul McCartney's career didn't exactly end with the Beatles either, nor Einstein's with his initial publication on relativity. |
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Wishmaster
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
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Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:59 am Post subject: |
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Right on, Zulethe. If you think old, you become old. I know this 27 year old Korean girl and she thinks about age all the time. She is worried about becoming 30 and she constantly obsessing over it. She is already defeated. I believe that old saying is th best: Youth is wasted on the young. So appropriate. |
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Kurtz
Joined: 05 Jan 2007 Location: ples bilong me
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