I know most of here are in our twenties, and we've never known a time when we had less mental acuity than we have now, so we believe we will be just as capable of learning new things as we get older. But I keep hearing from older people that they "just can't remember things as well they used to" or they "just can't pick up on things as well as they used to." It's a pretty scary thought that I won't always be as smart as I am now. The idea that there is a time limit, and that I must learn as much as I possibly can before my brain goes to mush - before I become practically incapable of learning new complex ideas.
Cameron Thompson
Eh, it doesn't seem too bad. My dad is over 60 and he has trouble remembering things, but he's clearly still smart and can still learn. There's a big difference between mild senility like most experience and Alzheimer's.
Thomas Diaz
I would guess it comes with age. Say as a species we provide the best offspring naturally in our late teens to late 20s. As children we retarded because we're still learning life skills until we mature in our late teens onwards having those said skills to survive and find mates. We reproduce and our biological purpose is now fullfilled. We get older and because we;re no longer needed to ensure the human race goes on, nature doesn't bother itself about how we end up dying. Our purpose is spent so no longer need the cognitive ability needed to survive against predators and rivals to breed. We get sluggish in them and hence because retarded again. That simple. The species gets what it needs out of the individual and then abandons them to go senile and croak.
Colton Cooper
but a better question is why we have to die anyway if we exclude overpopulation issues? If I'm not mistaken we only break down and age badly because our cells lose their ability to replicate or mend themselves over time with age. So if science provided a way to ensure those cells always replicated perfectly each time, would we never die of old age?
Thomas Stewart
An even better question is why do we have to age at all? Surely an organism that doesn't self destruct after a certain amount of time has passed has a HUGE advantage in passing on its genes. Yet organisms with biological immortality are either nonexistant or very very rare.
Evan Cox
bup
Ayden Bailey
Bump, i'm interested as well
But i think it all depends on your family history, since people like Paul Erdos still did Math until his death and he took amphetamines as well so
Sadly we will never be sure if we will get dumber or smarter though, but at least we should reduce our retardness with eating healthy and doing excercise
Joshua Williams
I probably answered that in my first. I'll say it again: Once we pass the peak age for producing offspring our purpose is over and our body starts breaking down to make way for the next generation to proliferate
Angel Wilson
That makes no sense.
Landon Rogers
What part of that doesn't make sense? We are useless after we have passed the age in which we can reproduce.
