The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain(wired.com)
wired.com
The Modern World Is Aging Your Brain
https://www.wired.com/story/aging-brain-volume/
66 comments
It's been interesting to watch the health and fitness space around brain health and correlations with diet and exercise. People seem to finally be converging around some common truths that have been known for thousands of years. I All roads seem to be pointing towards finding a balance between what we are evolved for as a species and modern life.
I'm hopeful that with a lot of these realizations, we change our habitats to be more in tune with our nature. Something like walking meetings or setting time aside to move.
Humans are incredibly intelligent, however intelligence doesn't mean we should forget our ancestral roots. We are meant to move; sitting in offices and eating junk food while getting information blasted into our brains from glowing rectangles is a recipe for disaster.
I'm optimistic that we will transition to a more human-centric way of living/working.
Humans are incredibly intelligent, however intelligence doesn't mean we should forget our ancestral roots. We are meant to move; sitting in offices and eating junk food while getting information blasted into our brains from glowing rectangles is a recipe for disaster.
I'm optimistic that we will transition to a more human-centric way of living/working.
Sounds better than the 40k future.
Never fear, you can always be lobotomized into a servitor.
We didn't know anything about diet thousands of years ago beyond "this tastes nice" and "I'm hungry", we merely endured starvation, prions, and scurvy… or died because we couldn't endure it. Sometimes we just got lucky with good fishing or fertile farmland, but we were never in control.
I'm not confident enough about the history of exercise to make an equivalent claim for that.
I'm not confident enough about the history of exercise to make an equivalent claim for that.
Yet we clearly prioritized certain foods and the human body adapted around those foods. Over time tribes converged on what plants were safe to eat (and which had defense chemicals that didn't make them suitable to eat), and prioritized certain animals for hunting.
One thing I find interesting with that is how tightly coupled mongol armies were to an animal based diet, and how they reportedly looked down on farming and agrarian societies.
You'll often find many people not willing to wade into discussing food and exercise anymore because peiple treat it almost religiously. It makes discussion hard in the space because now food is so tightly coupled with society and culture.
We know the ancient greeks and romans exercised. Warriors of successful societies prioritized being fit of body. To have a discussion we'd have to get to common definitions of what exercise is.
One thing I find interesting with that is how tightly coupled mongol armies were to an animal based diet, and how they reportedly looked down on farming and agrarian societies.
You'll often find many people not willing to wade into discussing food and exercise anymore because peiple treat it almost religiously. It makes discussion hard in the space because now food is so tightly coupled with society and culture.
We know the ancient greeks and romans exercised. Warriors of successful societies prioritized being fit of body. To have a discussion we'd have to get to common definitions of what exercise is.
> we clearly prioritized certain foods and the human body adapted around those foods
Most traditional cuisines have their fair share of nonsense medicines and performative poisons. They had more time to test, so I’d absolutely pick it over our processed food. But it’s far from panacea.
Most traditional cuisines have their fair share of nonsense medicines and performative poisons. They had more time to test, so I’d absolutely pick it over our processed food. But it’s far from panacea.
> they reportedly looked down on farming and agrarian societies.
I think a really solid case can be made that agriculture was the biggest mistake humans have made.
I think a really solid case can be made that agriculture was the biggest mistake humans have made.
Yeah, starving sounds awesome, hate that so many people will miss out on it.
One of the more notable features of the economy of agricultural Europe before the introduction of New World crops was regular mass starvation.
Only took about 10,000 years to reach the average height of hunter gatherers through agriculture.
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It beats starvation. The Nuer had three modes in this order of preference:
1. Cattle grazing when all was good (migration = transhumant)
2. Fishing when possible, but more work and hard to synch with migrations of cattle
3. Farming only when really necessary
See: E. E. Evans-Pritchard classics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nuer
1. Cattle grazing when all was good (migration = transhumant)
2. Fishing when possible, but more work and hard to synch with migrations of cattle
3. Farming only when really necessary
See: E. E. Evans-Pritchard classics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nuer
Agricultural societies outcompeted hunter-gatherers pretty much everywhere.
People thousands of years ago were not dumb. They had probably roughly the same pattern recognition skills as you or I. Just because they didn't have "physics" (mechanistic explanations of the effects they observed) doesn't mean they didn't have some understanding of good vs bad stuff.
Take the entirety of Chinese medicine, for example: there is a reason it's still popular, in that it works. It may not work how we think it "should" per Western standards in terms of direct methods of action of known compounds in the substances being ingested, but it still works: probably some combination of actual "healthy" compounds as well as a good dose of placebo.
Diets were likely similar for those of old: that guy over there only eats berries and rabbits and somehow he's been fine this whole time! He is strong like a bear, because he eats the things bears eat. This guy over here eats only foraged greens and is suffering from something we can't discern so we just say the forest spirits are mad at him.
Observational learning is present in many animals of much lower intelligence than humans even tens of thousands of years ago. Patronizing speculations of historical people only serves to obscure the notion of civilization's progress over these long time spans so what, we can pretend time began when writing started?
Take the entirety of Chinese medicine, for example: there is a reason it's still popular, in that it works. It may not work how we think it "should" per Western standards in terms of direct methods of action of known compounds in the substances being ingested, but it still works: probably some combination of actual "healthy" compounds as well as a good dose of placebo.
Diets were likely similar for those of old: that guy over there only eats berries and rabbits and somehow he's been fine this whole time! He is strong like a bear, because he eats the things bears eat. This guy over here eats only foraged greens and is suffering from something we can't discern so we just say the forest spirits are mad at him.
Observational learning is present in many animals of much lower intelligence than humans even tens of thousands of years ago. Patronizing speculations of historical people only serves to obscure the notion of civilization's progress over these long time spans so what, we can pretend time began when writing started?
The problem with TCM is that they don't accept what they don't know, they'll just make something up about "heat" or something. So while there are for sure real treatments that work, it's also lumped in with a bunch of other BS so you can't ever be sure it will work.
That's the main difference between western and TCM. Western medicine we quite often know something works (because of double blind studies) but we don't always have an explanation. TCM is fundamentally untrustyworthy in the 21st century.
And you can get placebos anywhere.
That's the main difference between western and TCM. Western medicine we quite often know something works (because of double blind studies) but we don't always have an explanation. TCM is fundamentally untrustyworthy in the 21st century.
And you can get placebos anywhere.
the history of exercise is just living. not that long ago, just living required constant movement. in my own childhood i had to do a ton of labor that was just living, not a job.
> history of exercise is just living
The Greeks and Romans intentionally exercised outside daily toils.
The Greeks and Romans intentionally exercised outside daily toils.
The rich slave owning Greeks and Romans while not marching to another battle? Do we know anything about the exercise habits of the poor (other than the dude in the bathtub) or the slaves?
> rich slave owning Greeks and Romans while not marching to another battle?
Yes.
> Do we know anything about the exercise habits of the poor (other than the dude in the bathtub) or the slaves?
This is a notorious blind spot in our knowledge of our antiquity. It’s partly why the ruins at Pompeii were so interesting.
Yes.
> Do we know anything about the exercise habits of the poor (other than the dude in the bathtub) or the slaves?
This is a notorious blind spot in our knowledge of our antiquity. It’s partly why the ruins at Pompeii were so interesting.
As an aside, ancient cultural knowledge for finding and preparing food is surprisingly sophisticated and non-obvious [1], even if it does not lend itself to an explicit rational model:
> A reasonable person would have asked why everyone was wasting so much time preparing manioc. When told “Because that’s how we’ve always done it”, they would have been unsatisfied with that answer. They would have done some experiments, and found that a simpler process of boiling it worked just as well. They would have saved lots of time, maybe converted all their friends to the new and easier method. Twenty years later, they would have gotten sick and died, in a way so causally distant from their decision to change manioc processing methods that nobody would ever have been able to link the two together.
[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/04/book-review-the-secret...
> A reasonable person would have asked why everyone was wasting so much time preparing manioc. When told “Because that’s how we’ve always done it”, they would have been unsatisfied with that answer. They would have done some experiments, and found that a simpler process of boiling it worked just as well. They would have saved lots of time, maybe converted all their friends to the new and easier method. Twenty years later, they would have gotten sick and died, in a way so causally distant from their decision to change manioc processing methods that nobody would ever have been able to link the two together.
[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/04/book-review-the-secret...
That was an interesting read! Thanks!
Yup, national height increasing rapidly after the advent of easy food is a clear indication humans have been malnourished for a long time
Not necessarily. There are health disadvantages that come from being taller, and also from having higher caloric intake. It could be that we’re adapted to less food, and when we have more we get both taller and less healthy on average.
> We didn't know anything about diet thousands of years ago beyond "this tastes nice" and "I'm hungry"
I'm not so sure. Some ancient societies had a pretty advanced idea of what makes a good diet. And people in any time period can tell that "if I eat this way, I feel better and if I eat that way, I feel worse".
I'm not so sure. Some ancient societies had a pretty advanced idea of what makes a good diet. And people in any time period can tell that "if I eat this way, I feel better and if I eat that way, I feel worse".
From my own readings, fowl meat was known to be healthy to the Greeks, and Cabbage was a stereotypical prescription to sick Romans.
If this were true, people would have died of scurvy at random as opposed to only when forced into a restricted diet at sea.
how many thousands? eating kosher goes back thousands of years already. you would have to go back a long time like pre agriculture. that is about 10k years. that is a lot of generations of people to adapt.
Reminds me of this article which talks about how the introduction of the 'western' diet corresponded with a systemic deterioration of societal health: https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/06/04/the-modern-diet-is-a...
because occulted technology is sucking the life-force out of you and selling back to you some part of it as electricity. the trick is the fractional way they do this, only taking a 'negligible' fraction of each of the millions of humans...
but it adds up, and what is worse, is that it's greedy... so the fraction keeps going up and up and up, sucking more and more down faster and faster
but most will surely prefer the academic explanation, a lot less magic in that one than in this comment
but it adds up, and what is worse, is that it's greedy... so the fraction keeps going up and up and up, sucking more and more down faster and faster
but most will surely prefer the academic explanation, a lot less magic in that one than in this comment
As an occasionally crazy person myself, I agree. Tried living without electricity for a few weeks in 2020, everything felt much more sharp and visceral.
Feels like modern tech has a numbing, coddling effect. You can explain it however you want, but I experienced the same thing as this guy, that electricity "middlemans" my life force, trading the high and lows for predictability, BNW Soma-style.
Feels like modern tech has a numbing, coddling effect. You can explain it however you want, but I experienced the same thing as this guy, that electricity "middlemans" my life force, trading the high and lows for predictability, BNW Soma-style.
I would be very interested to hear more about your weeks of living without electricity. I assume this wasn’t just going camping but rather you had the remaining components of modern life (running water, toilet) but by no electricity did you also not have a fridge?
I mean duh, how is that surprising? It's entirely about convience, entertainment and comfort.
Advertising did the same too, as did TV and radio. Attention is a finite and scarce resource, that’s why companies have always targeted it.
And yet more mystery.
the "mystery" is part of it
it creates a curiosity, which has a softkind of drawing gravitational pull. I know I'm vulnerable to this.
The mystery drives motivation, hence the connection to energy (the capacity to do work). the curiosity propels my own motivation (willingness to spend my energy) to investigate these things, and others like it.
edit: I am sorry that what I have had to think to make my own sense of this complex reality upsets some people.
it creates a curiosity, which has a softkind of drawing gravitational pull. I know I'm vulnerable to this.
The mystery drives motivation, hence the connection to energy (the capacity to do work). the curiosity propels my own motivation (willingness to spend my energy) to investigate these things, and others like it.
edit: I am sorry that what I have had to think to make my own sense of this complex reality upsets some people.
This kind of nonsense drivel detracts from fact based critiques of current realities. Do you at least propose something to be done or is it all just mumbo-jumbo?
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to be fair, in my edit above i mean a sorry but not sorry kind of sorry.
mumbo jumbo for one person is another's deep insightful explanation... what's more curious is that i understand your perspective and you don't understand mine (not yet)
as for a proposal? dunno, I propose we all master the mysteries is the only think that comes to mind
mumbo jumbo for one person is another's deep insightful explanation... what's more curious is that i understand your perspective and you don't understand mine (not yet)
as for a proposal? dunno, I propose we all master the mysteries is the only think that comes to mind
I've seen a similar article about the Australian natives who walked 5-9 miles per day.
That it's good for them? Or bad?
I walk about that much, and if I don't I start to get pretty antsy.
I walk about that much, and if I don't I start to get pretty antsy.
10 miles a day doesn't sound like a remarkable amount to me at all.
What portion of humanity do you think actually move that much?
The majority, or reasonably close to it, I imagine. The average American walks about 2 miles per day (about half what is considered the minimum recommended amount -- and half of what the average American child walks), and I rather suspect that most of the world walks more than the average american.
Do you have a citation for that number? I'd be somewhat surprised if the median walking distance is actually that high. Walking two miles would take most people 30-50 minutes depending on various factors. Perhaps this reflects my bubble but I live in a relatively walking friendly city and most people I know will look for some other form of transportation if the distance is longer than a mile. 10 miles a day is a good amount of walking. It will take most people 2.5-4 hours depending on fitness and terrain. That is a lot of walking to do every single day and again I'd be surprised if this was the world norm even if Americans are a particularly sedentary outlier.
Personally, I prioritize walking and go for a long recreational walk almost every day. Still, I have only averaged about 6 miles per day over the last three years and I walk far more than anyone I know.
Personally, I prioritize walking and go for a long recreational walk almost every day. Still, I have only averaged about 6 miles per day over the last three years and I walk far more than anyone I know.
Here's one. The statistics are easily found online, from many different sources, and they all generally agree with each other. So if you don't like this source, I'm sure you can find one that you do like.
https://www.healthline.com/health/average-steps-per-day
> 10 miles a day is a good amount of walking. It will take most people 2.5-4 hours depending on fitness and terrain.
Perhaps this is a source of misunderstanding -- this is adding up all the walking people do throughout their day, not talking about single-trip walks. So all the walking around the office, while shopping, etc.
I think little things add up. For instance, I walk about 6 miles per day on average. Much more than the average American. But, unlike the average American, if I'm going somewhere close (say, two miles or less), I don't drive -- I walk.
https://www.healthline.com/health/average-steps-per-day
> 10 miles a day is a good amount of walking. It will take most people 2.5-4 hours depending on fitness and terrain.
Perhaps this is a source of misunderstanding -- this is adding up all the walking people do throughout their day, not talking about single-trip walks. So all the walking around the office, while shopping, etc.
I think little things add up. For instance, I walk about 6 miles per day on average. Much more than the average American. But, unlike the average American, if I'm going somewhere close (say, two miles or less), I don't drive -- I walk.
You do realize 2 is much less then 10?
It's about 2-3 hours walking, 20k-30k steps, it's significant but not that much.
only 4.5% of the world's population lives in the USA
I don't see how that points to a global average of walking distance that would make 10 miles a trivial amount.
I never said 10 was a trivial amount. Only that it didn't seem remarkably high.
The US is unusual in that we drive a lot more than most of the world, which eliminates a lot of walking. So I'm making the inference that Americans walk a lot less than most of the world.
I just checked my own records, and on average I walk about 6 miles/day.
EDIT: I tried to find what the global average is, but (understandably) there is only good data on modern industrialized nations. Amongst modern industrialized nations, the average appears to be around 5 miles/day. So I still think that 10 is not a remarkably high amount. I'm guessing the global average is around 8 or so (but that's 100% a guess).
The US is unusual in that we drive a lot more than most of the world, which eliminates a lot of walking. So I'm making the inference that Americans walk a lot less than most of the world.
I just checked my own records, and on average I walk about 6 miles/day.
EDIT: I tried to find what the global average is, but (understandably) there is only good data on modern industrialized nations. Amongst modern industrialized nations, the average appears to be around 5 miles/day. So I still think that 10 is not a remarkably high amount. I'm guessing the global average is around 8 or so (but that's 100% a guess).
>I never said 10 was a trivial amount. Only that it didn't seem remarkably high.
You're just copping out now
You're just copping out now
Not even remotely. My other comments in this thread demonstrate this, I think. But clearly you're more interested in misrepresenting or misunderstanding my position in order to have someone to demonize.
tl;dr:
It's exercise, or physical activity. That's why these tribe members' brains are aging more slowly.
It's exercise, or physical activity. That's why these tribe members' brains are aging more slowly.
Maybe we'll finally come around to the idea that intelligence is not the be-all, end-all... wisdom deserves respect too. Of course first we'll nearly annihilate ourselves, but whatever, you people want that to happen so get on with it. (rage-downvote harder while you're at it, truth hurts don't it.)
Modernity... LOL