Even Older Generations

The subject of age has come into the news based on a research study of the subject of longevity. It seems that humans born today and thereafter in wealthier "developed" countries will live a whole lot longer that those of us already alive. Professor Kaare Christensen, of the Danish Ageing Research Centre at the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study, said life expectancy had been increasing since 1840 and there was no sign of this trend slowing down. The research says that man could now be regarded as having four stages of life. They include childhood, adulthood, young old age and old old age.

The study points out that until the 1920s, improvements in infant and childhood survival contributed most to the increase in life expectancies. Since then the increases have been brought about largely by progress in the survival of the elderly.Interesting too, is that the study said there was no evidence that the old old age group were unhealthier than their younger counterparts, partly because the frailest people died first, leaving the strongest to survive past 85. In the wealthy nations there is evidence of a postponement in the limitations and disabilities caused by ill health, despite an increase in chronic diseases. This was because of improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.

So what does all of this information mean to us? Do we want to live to be a 100? After all, our patience with society's problems seems to lessen as we age. Haha I know that if Reality TV and cell phone bores, for instance, are still around when I approach 100, I might not want to reach that age. It might be that people who are at or past 100 years of age require a little higher level in life than what the "ignorant masses" accept in their naive youth.

But what would those interests be? Don't we already exhaust all the options in life by old age? Maybe technology will have to come to the "old old age" group rescue with some "virtual pleasure" machine that makes life interesting still. If we could program such a machine to provide experiences we want we would either be more fulfilled and happy about being an "old old' ager, or we would be so immersed in the machine we would lose touch with the reality outside of it. It's an interesting scenario, huh?