Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
I wonder if the average person could maintain interest in the world if they had an extended lifespan. I mean even in a normal span of say 100 yrs things can change so much. When John Rockerfeller was born for example we had yet to see the invention of the airplane, and by the time he passed away we'd reached the moon. Could you psychologically adapt to a world that would no doubt have changed in ways we can't even imagine today and still be able to find your way around? I'd think a person would feel very lost just trying to do the most basic things. I mean say someone born shortly after the telephone was to be transported to our present. Would they be able to figure out how to work a cell phone? Understand what traffic lights are? Be able to figure out how to turn a computer on (much less be able to search for information)? I expect such a person would be totally lost in our modern world. And most of us find it harder the older we get to adapt to new things.
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It's one thing to be transported to another time, and another to live until it arrives. The world was quite a bit different in my childhood too (no computers, no internet, the constant fear of a nuclear war and so on). Older people find it hard to adapt because their brain also gets older and more inflexible. I imagine if one lived for hundreds of years while not aging biologically, they'd be able to adapt. Whether they'd want to or not, that's a whole other kettle of fish. It's perfectly possible they would not.
My 80-year-old father could use a smartphone and an Android tablet quite well before he died. So theoretically at least the ability to adapt is there. My mom, however, never learned to use any smart gadgets, including a computer. She just had no interest in such things, not because she was less intelligent than my dad was.