parents – Harmonia Philosophica

Aging…

Zachariah Reagh, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis found that brain activity in older adults isn’t necessarily quieter when it comes to memory. “It’s just different,” he said.

What he found out is that while a 20-year-old notes all details in a movie, an older viewer might be paying more attention to the broader picture – What kind of room are the characters in? Have the characters transitioned from a formal dinner setting to a more relaxed, after-dinner location? Did a loud, tense conversation resolve into a friendly one? “[…] older adults […] may be shifting away from the more detailed contextual information,” Reagh said. “[…] things might become more schematic. More ‘gist-like.'”, he added. (1)

Same picture.

Different perspectives.

So simple.

So hard to understand.

So obvious.

So difficult to accept.

Would you trust your younger self?

Will you trust you when you get old?

Could you both be wrong?

Could one of them be right?

Does it matter?

The movie has started.

And regardless of what you understand or not.

One thing is for sure.

You wanted so bad to go to the movies…

Come, dad.

Give me some pop-corn…

Here, kid.

The movie has not started yet.

And yet I feel like…

I understood it all.

Changed self. Life. Acting. Loving.

When thinking about the future, some people think they will change, and others expect they might remain the same. But, how do these predictions relate to happiness later on in their lives? According to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), expecting ourselves to remain mostly the same over the next ten years is strongly related to being happier later in life. The research is published in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

One would assume that if people make optimistic predictions about the future, such as “thinking they will become more compassionate and intelligent in the future,” as Joseph Reiff (UCLA) suggests, “they would end up becoming happier in the years that follow.” What Reiff and colleagues found however, surprised them.

“The more people initially predicted that they would remain the same — whether predicting less decline or less improvement across a number of core traits — the more satisfied they typically were with their lives ten years later,” says Reiff. (1)

We have idolized change.

But can anything change?

Whatever you do you will always be you.

Unless you choose not to.

But even then, this is you.

Trying to be someone else.

Life as a theater play. And we are all actors. Others perform well, others not so much. But only a handful of us remember that at the end of the play, we will retreat backstage and go back home again…

Only a handful or us remember that the play is not important…

Hello daughter! I’ve been waiting for you…

It was a terrible play dad.

I didn’t watch it. Come. Dinner is on the table…

Coronavirus: Selecting who will die. Playing God. Hubris. Punishment.

Many talk about the coronavirus. Many have opinions. Many theories. And one theory that is starting to gain a lot of followers is the one that England has decided to apply: Let’s sacrifice some to save others. Let the vulnerable groups and old men die and let the rest live. If we don’t do it, everyone will be destroyed. (1)

A very progressive view. A very advanced view. A very scientific point of view (yes, scientists were consulted on this decision – see more on herd immunity theories, impact analysis on the economy, etc).

A view – as cliché as it sounds – full of malice and evil. Malice for the fellow who dies. But what do I care for that? I will survive. Malice for those who will suffer. But what do I care about that? The economy will still be standing!

Religion has been saying it again and again but nobody wants to hear it: The biggest trick of the devil is to convince man that he does not exist. In the past, human life was priceless. Every man was a son of God. Now human life is measured in economic terms and sacrificed in front of the needs of the… fit for survival. Darwin would be very proud of England today, which puts into practice the Theory of Evolution in the most gruesome way.

But for Christianity, every human being is potentially God. We are all part of Him. And with proper preparation we can become one with Him. As Nietzsche had said, now man has killed God. And now we are just counting dollars and calculating cost-benefit differences. If the equation is solved, then it is easy for us to kill our grandfather and grandmother because this will save “businesses” or the “GDP”.

At the end, England’s policy may succeed and those who live may gain immunity and their economy potentially will not be destroyed. But it will be an economy built on death and blood. At the end, those most capable for survival may survive. But they will no longer be able to taste the fruits of their victory.

And when the noise subsides and the night comes…

The greatest punishment will not be from cries and vengeance…

But from the sweet gentle touch of your grandmother when she put you to sleep. And from the sweet goodnight she whispered to you…

Right before you killed her.

Update 2020-03-17: The UK government seems to be changing or reconsidering this policy. (source)

Robotic tutors. Hubris…

The use of robotic tutors in primary school classrooms is one step closer according to research recently published in the open access journal Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. (1)

We are afraid to be parents.

And we like our children to teach us.

We hated our Father.

Because we, His children, knew better…