Buckethead..
And yea, aging is kind of scary Ock. We older persons know that the time might come when our minds will deteriorate at a rate faster than our bodies. I have for decades observed some older people who think and speak with obvious limitations, and then try to imagine how these people might have acted and talked when they were twenty years old. Surely they must have acted with quick decisions and energetic thoughts and speech.
As most realize however, whereas some individuals begin to show mental deficiencies in their sixties, some seem never to show them, even into their nineties, although perhaps they slow somewhat in their spontaneous vigor.
I suspect that although physiological deterioration of the brain cells and synaptic integrity can be a major cause of brain dysfunction, and therefore mental deterioration, the additional factor giving choice as to the overall condition of an older person’s mind is that of practice or use. If one habitually uses and exercises his or her brain, exploring ideas and analyzing possibilities into their nineties, then their mind might function quite well into the nineties and beyond.
The realization that one’s thinking ability is a consequence of the integrity and function of one’s physical brain is a little scary to me, as logic informs me that when the physiology of the brain begins to decline, the quality of thought declines also, and there is nothing one can do about it. I suspect that as age extends, one’s thinking becomes cloudy, as when one is drunk, or when one has been given a drug in a hospital. Most of us desire clarity of thought as we engage the world.
The fact of being solely a physical being, which happens to be my belief; that there is no possibility of any assistance or engagement with anything supernatural in the world beyond my physical body is somewhat depressing, as I know that there is no hope for assistance from anything in the universe but within my own brain.
According to my view, and this might be the position of many atheists, we are indeed alone in the universe, each one of us. There is nobody to pull us through but ourselves. Although this realization might make us more independent and self-reliant, it is taxing and wearisome, as one realizes that there is nobody to rely upon for help or comfort, as would be the case if one believed in spiritual entities nearby, or somewhere.
Therefore in some respects I envy the religious persons because they are able to experience comfort from something outside of themselves, whereas the atheist is alone in the universe. But of course, there must be comfort and balance within each mind, else it would crumble, so the atheist must gain comfort and balance in by some method of thinking.
But perhaps there can be reasonable happiness at all times, even when one’s mental flexibility has deteriorated. After all, the chimp seems to be happy. Dogs and elephants too. Perhaps as one’s level of thinking deteriorates, one simply becomes more like an animal, able to think only to certain depths, all the while maintaining the balance necessary to live day to day.
So, yes Ock… long live our brains, as the brain is really all we have, and what we are.
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