> Rupee via Python-list <python-list@python.org> writes: > > > I don't think stupid black people or senile old people should be > > allowable because those are not choosable *behaviors*. But is > > unable-to-learn old people a choosable behavior? You said that's ok.
I've mostly been ignoring this thread and its predecessors, and I probably won't read all the recent posts to it. But this bit caught my eye because I hold the opposite opinion about old people's ability to learn. It is a choice. Your noggin doesn't just conk out at a certain age, or stage in the aging process. There are plenty of examples of scholars and authors (and many others) who've kept their wits sharp and their minds fully functional. Some till the day they died, others didn't quite last the whole way. There's two paths to keeping the mind forever alive ("forever" meaning at least till death, we don't know what comes after that). Both are almost purely physical. One is to use the mind all one's life, and the principle is identical to "use it or lose it", more commonly heard in athletic circles. But the mind is like muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. And vice versa. And I'm living proof that if you use your mind hard all your life (since I was about 3, in my case), you can let it coast for at least a decade and it will still be there, and it can still learn. Of course there's a lengthy stage of bringing it out of mothballs, but it can be done. The other path I'm living proof of is the food you eat. The brain responds badly to chemicals that enter the body, and particularly ones you ingest in food. And the brain is blood thirsty. It particularly craves grassfed and pastured red meat, the rarer the better, and organ meats. I eat all forms of it, but the prize goes to wild red meats - antelope, venison & wild boar. I'll spare you all the reasons why and the evidence, but they are very good reasons. I've also had university math and science professors who swore by heavy daily exercise regimes, but I haven't done it and neither have aged scholars who still had their good minds very late in life, so rigorous exercise is not a requirement. I have no idea whether it's sufficient to sustain and grow the mind either, but no doubt it helps. So, it is a choice of how you live your life, and how important it is to you to have a mind worth keeping. I see no reason to accord those people who didn't care all their lives any special status. Oh, and I think it's also a choice whether you are stupid or not, barring physical abnormalities of the brain. Regardless of age, gender or race. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list